Reference against Shahbaz’s son-in-law, daughter adjourned

LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday adjourned the hearing of a reference against Shahbaz Sharif’s son-in-law Ali Imran Yousaf and daughter Rabia Imran till May 21.

Previously, the court had sought the details of the properties of both accused after declaring them as proclaimed offenders in Saaf Pani Company reference. The case has been adjourned without any development due to unavailability of the trial judge.

The NAB had filed a supplementary reference against Waseem Ajmal, former CEO, Punjab, Saaf Pani Company, South, Imran Ali Yousaf, CEO M/s Ali, and Fatima Developers, on acquiring an under-construction building (Ali Trade Centre) on rent by abusing authority, which caused a loss of Rs24.7m to the national exchequer. However, Ali Imran didn’t join the investigation nor appeared before the court.

Fatima Developers is jointly owned by Ali Imran and his wife Rabia Imran, daughter of Shahbaz Sharif. In 2018, an accountability court had declared Imran Yousaf an absconder for receiving graft money from Punjab Power Development Company CEO Ikram Naveed. According to NAB, Ikram Naveed confessed to giving illegal monetary benefit worth Rs132 million to Ali Imran.

Naveed bought three floors worth Rs132m in the Ali Trade Centre, owned by Imran Ali. Ikram, his wife Samina and son Farjad bought two complete commercial floors and a complete penthouse floor in Ali Trade Centre.

The accused directly transferred more than Rs60m from the accounts of Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority to the accounts of Ali and Fatima Developers. Ali Imran, through Ali Trade Centre which was under-construction, allegedly minted more than Rs100m from government money.