(Liquor licence case)…NAB grills Buzdar’s relative, summons six officials

LAHORE: A close relative of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, who is DPO Sahiwal, Amir Taimur Buzdar, appeared before National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore on Thursday and recorded his statement in the liquor licence case to the Combined Investigation Team.

According to sources, the NAB team asked 21 questions from Amir Taimur, some of which he declined to comment on, while to other questions, he said he could not recall the answers. According to sources, NAB has asked for all record about Amir Taimur and he will be summoned again next week.

Also, NAB on Thursday expanded scope of investigation into liquor licence case and decided to summon six officials including senior bureaucrat. According to details, the anti-corruption watchdog will record statement of Specialized Secretary, former Excise Secretary Nabeel Awan, deputy secretary to chief minister Punjab, and others.

Earlier, the Punjab CM had submitted answers to 17 NAB questions. He stated that he played no role in the issuance of the liquor license in question, nor did he do anything wrong in this regard. He said that the Excise and Taxation director-general had powers to issue liquor licences.

A total of 11 licences were issued, out of which nine were issued by the director-general himself, he said, adding the then Punjab governor issued licences in 2000 and 2001. He also said that he had rejected a summary sent to him by Excise and Taxation Director General Akram Gondal for issuance of a licence over the want of powers. Gondal sent another summary to the CM Secretariat after issuing the licence, but the chief minister’s principal secretary sent back the summary for having been sent to an irrelevant forum, he said, adding the Excise and Taxation minister then suspended the liquor licence of the hotel but a single bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) later ordered restoration of the licence in 2019. An intra-court appeal against the verdict is pending disposal, Buzdar explained, adding not a single liquor bottle was sold on the licence of the hotel that has also applied for its renewal.