NAB wants Durrani family’s assets frozen

An accountability court on Thursday issued a notice to the defence over an application filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking freezing of the assets of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani’s family among other accused till the disposal of a Rs1.6 billion corruption reference against them.

The accountability court-III judge directed the defence side to appear on May 19 to submit their arguments on the application which seeks confiscation of 12 properties - most of which are owned by Durrani’s family.

Durrani and 18 others, including his wife Naheed, son Shahbaz, daughters Sanam, Sonya, Shahana and Sara, brother Agha Masihuddin, Zulfiqar Dahar, Shamshad Khatoon, Munawar Ali, Ghulam Murtaza, Muhammad Irfan, Shakeel Soomro, Gulbahar Baloch, Aslam Langah, Tufail Shah, Mitha Khan, Muhammad Shah and Gulzar Ahmed, were indicted in November 2020 in the reference pertaining to accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

The latest application from NAB sought court orders to freeze 12 properties, which include nine residential and commercial units in Defence Housing Authority, one each in Abbottabad and Malir and a bank account, owned by the wife, daughters and son of Durrani and three others.

The anti-graft watchdog said that in view of the serious allegations of corruption against the accused, these properties may be frozen until the disposal of the case; however, the owners could continue receiving the rental income coming from them.

The court will decide on the matter after listening to the arguments by the defence side. In the reference, NAB has maintained that Durrani and others could not account for a difference of Rs1,610,669,528 between his declared total income from 1985 to 2018 and the assets, including properties, vehicles and others valuables, in his, his family, dependants and benamidars’ names which surfaced during investigation.