NAB arrests PML-N leader Khawaja Asif in assets beyond means case

The National Accountability Bureau  (NAB) on Tuesday  arrested  PML-N leader Khawaja Asif in assets beyond means case, Geo News reported.

The PML-N leader was arrested from Ahsan Iqbal's house in Islamabad.

NAB spokesperson Nawazish Ali Asim has confirmed to The News that Asif has been arrested in a case of assets beyond means.

The arrest was made soon after a PML-N meeting — held to decide whether the party's lawmaker should resign from the Senate or not — concluded.

Sources informed Geo News that the chairman NAB had signed on Khawaja Asif's arrest warrants and that he has been shifted to the anti-graft watchdog's Rawalpindi office.

Sources further said that NAB arrested Khawaja Asif in a case that Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar had filed against him.

Khawaja Asif failed to declare the source of Rs220 million he received from Dubai, the sources said.

Moreover, PML-N lawmaker Hina Parvez Butt said that she condemned the arrest and warned Prime Minister Imran Khan that his "days in office were numbered".

Khawaja Asif was 'always ready to be arrested'

Geo News anchor Hamid Mir on his show "Capital Talk" said that the former foreign minister knew he would be arrested and had even made preparations beforehand for it.

"He had prepared a bag as well and would say that the NAB would arrest him soon," said Mir.

The spokesperson for Nawaz Sharif Muhammad Zubair, speaking on Geo News' programme Capital Talk, said that the arrest came in response to Maryam Nawaz's speeches.

"They wanted to do something, and now they did," he said, adding more PML-N leaders would be arrested in the coming days.

Zubair said that people were questioning Sheikh Rasheed's appointment and now we have seen his first move as interior minister.

Maryam says Asif 'abducted'

PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz held a press conference shortly after Asif's arrest, calling it an "abduction".

She said NAB was "lurking around, waiting to pounce" and arrested him right around the bend from Iqbal's house.

The PML-N vice president said that arresting someone like this, in an asset beyond means case, "is done when you have nothing on someone [...] you then make use of a vague thing to arrest someone".

She said the government was making such decisions "while trembling in fear of losing".

Maryam Nawaz held a press conference shortly after Asif's arrest, calling it an "abduction".

She said NAB was "lurking around, waiting to pounce" and arrested him right around the bend from Iqbal's house.

The PML-N vice president said that arresting someone like this, in an asset beyond means case, "is done when you have nothing on someone [...] you then make use of a vague thing to arrest someone".

She said the government was making such decisions "while trembling in fear of losing".

Maryam said that Asif told him a few days ago that "someone from NAB" had called him over and asked him to "leave Nawaz Sharif" and his cases "would be wrapped up in 15-20 days" but he said he has a life-long association with the PML-N supremo and would "never leave his side".

"Khawaja Asif told them they can do what they wish [...] he was told he will have to face the consequences [...] and then this happens a few days later," she said.

Maryam said the people look to the judiciary and still have hope that they would ensure justice is provided in Pakistan.

She said the government is mistaken if they think that the can put the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly (Shahbaz Sharif) and Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly (Hamza Shahbaz) in jail and now arrest PML-N's parliamentary leader and influence the party's decision to resign from the assemblies.

The PML-N vice president said she has received 159 resignations from Punjab lawmakers — save from one MPA on a ventilator — and almost all from the National Assembly lawmakers, except for one.

She said PML-N will remain "undeterred" and "will not let this go easily".

Later, in a tweet, Maryam said that the "condemnable incident" points towards the "selectors and selected being hand in glove".

"We can see with such crude tactics how afraid the government is and how they themselves are bringing their own end near. The days of blind revenge are numbered," she wrote.

NAB issues statement

Later in the night, NAB Lahore released a statement confirming that the PML-N leader was arrested in pursuance of an investigation into assets beyond known sources of income.

According to the statement, Asif will be produced before an accountability court in Islamabad for transit remand.

An investigation is underway against the accused under Section (V) of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and Section (3) of Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, said the statement.

"Accused Khawaja Asif allegedly made assets in excess of his income while concealing the nature, means and transfer of assets," according to the NAB Lahore statement.

The statement noted that Asif had become a senator in 1991, later served as a federal minister and was also an MNA in different government tenures.

Before holding public office, his total assets were Rs5.1 million (Rs51 lakh) in 1991. However, after holding various positions till 2018, his assets reached Rs221 million (Rs22.1 crore) which does not match his apparent income, said the statement.

It further stated that Asif claimed to have earned Rs130 million (Rs13 crore) from a job in a UAE firm called M/S IMECO. However, during interrogations, he could not produce any concrete evidence of this amount as salary.

"It clearly shows that the accused wanted to prove his assets through fake sources of income," said the statement.

NAB alleged that Asif is also running a company under the name of his employee, Tariq Mir, named "Tariq Mir and Co." in whose bank account a heft sum of Rs400 million (Rs40 crore) was deposited but no sources for the funds could be provided.

It noted that the matter of his employment abroad had been the subject of court hearings by the Supreme Court as well as the High Court where it was observed there is "no legal restriction" in holding public office alongside being privately employed.

The purpose of the NAB inquiry was to find out whether the foreign income declared by Khawaja Asif was correct or not, said the statement.

NAB, in its statement said that its inquiry "revealed that the accused Khawaja Asif was in Pakistan during the alleged period of employment abroad while the documents of employment abroad were furnished only to declare fake sources of income".

It said "no paper trail" of his income from his employment abroad was provided.