Claims made by PTI leader’s PA: ‘Usman Dar’s brother received kickbacks’

ISLAMABAD: Personal Assistant to former chairman of Prime Minister Youth Programme and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Usman Dar on Sunday claimed to have given Rs5 million to Usman’s brother Ahmad Dar as commission. But the alleged PA to the PTI leader later promptly denied all the accusations in a press conference.

In the statement, Javed Ali claimed that he was Dar’s PA for three months. He revealed that he collected millions of rupees as commission from five contractors of four union councils of NA-67 and gave it to Usman Dar’s brother Ahmed Dar.

Sharing the details of tenders and commissions for them, Ali said that Bajwa and Co had a tender of Rs20 million, for which he collected Rs2 million commission and gave it to Ahmed Dar. Moreover, he collected Rs500,000 from Zain Bajwa Company for a tender of Rs5 million and Rs1 million commission from Khizer Construction Company and Bilal Contractors, each for the tenders of Rs10 million respectively.

Javed Ali revealed that Khawaja Imran looked after the union councils and took 10, 15 or 20 percent commission for it.

He further said it all started after Ahmed Dar offered him a government job.

“I am less educated so I got a fake educational certificate made and submitted it to the education department at the behest of Ahmed Dar,” he also said.

Ali added that he was currently working at a government elementary model school in Daliyan and collected the commission for Ahmed Dar for this favour.

After the confessional statement surfaced, addressing a press conference alongside Javed Ali, Usman Dar alleged that the federal government wanted to trap him by accusing him of corruption, saying that Javed Ali had never been his PA. Dar said that he had never touched the taxpayers money as the special assistant to the prime minister.

The PTI leader said laundered proceeds are found in the accounts of people working under those who are accused of graft. “Were billions of rupees transferred to my cook and driver’s accounts?” he questioned.

Dar requested Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to take a suo motu notice on his case. He also urged the Directorate General Anti-Corruption to hear his case in an open court.

Coming down hard on the coalition government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Dar said that the rulers are putting PTI leaders in jail and making sedition cases against them, adding that supporting PTI Chairman Imran Khan had become a crime for them. “The government wants to prove that Khan is a thief like them.”

Dar also urged that his case should be heard in a Sialkot court.

He said that Ali was tortured for two days, adding that he was threatened that his wife and children would be called and given electric shocks. “Deputy commissioner and district police officer Sialkot should tell who inflicted torture on Javed Ali.”

“Javed was never my PA. He was picked up to fix me,” said the PTI leader, adding that he never took a kickback from any contract nor took any car, salary or perks while he was in office.

Speaking at the same press conference, Javed Ali denied what he had said in the “confessional” statement, saying that the statement was false.

Ali said he was not Dar’s personal assistant and he did not collect any money from any contractor.

“I had gone to the education department to collect my salary. Ten to fifteen people abducted me after covering my face with a cloth.”

Ali also alleged that he had been beaten up after being shifted to an unknown place. He said that he had been asked how much money he allegedly gave to Usman Dar. He said he told them that he hadn’t given any money.

“I was stripped of my clothes and tied to a seat and hung upside down. I was tied like a dog,” he said, adding that a cop told the others to bring his wife and children.

Ali further said that he had been told that they would make an objectionable video of his wife. He added that this broke his strength and he had to tell them that he would say whatever they wanted.

He claimed that they took a day for recording his statement in a washroom after giving him a bath and shave.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Transport Minister Shahid Khattak said the caretaker government had decided to probe the mega projects of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

He told Geo News the caretaker cabinet, including the chief minister, had decided to investigate the mega projects and there would be a discussion on it in the next cabinet meeting.

He said all projects, including Malam Jabba, Billion Tree, BRT and Peshawar Beautification Scheme, where corruption of billions of rupees had been committed, would be investigated.

The interim minister alleged that former chief ministers Pervez Khattak, Mahmood Khan and former ministers had committed corruption in the projects. He said Khattak also awarded mega projects to his relatives.

Former provincial minister Taimur Jhagra said the caretaker minister wanted to punish all the PTI leaders for corruption.