LHC grants bail to ex-principal secretary to PM Fawad Hasan Fawad

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday granted bail to Fawad Hasan Fawad, the former principal secretary to two ex-prime ministers, in the assets beyond means case.

The LHC awarded bail to the former principal secretary against bonds worth Rs10 million. During the proceedings, the court bench asked the National Accountability Bureaus' (NAB) prosecutor as to how many shares did the ex-principal secretary hold in the Motorway City and Kashmir Road Plaza projects.

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In response, the prosecutor told the court that he was not aware of that and the information should be sought from the suspect. The court responded angrily, asking the NAB lawyer as to why the suspect would share that information, saying he should have done his homework.

The anti-graft watchdog had filed two separate cases against Fawad, who has also served as principal secretary to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi when he was elected to the post after Nawaz Sharif's disqualification.

According to the NAB, a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons had won the Ashiana housing scheme contract. However, the NAB says then-Punjab chief minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and his aides awarded the Rs14-billion contract to the Lahore Casa Developers — a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by former railways minister, Saad Rafique.

Fawad — who was implementation secretary to the chief minister Punjab at the time — had levelled charges of wrongdoings against Chaudhry Latif and Sons allegedly for the contract to be awarded to Casa Developers.

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In a second reference, filed in March last year, the NAB had accused Fawad of accumulating illegal assets worth Rs1.09 billion, including a five-kanal commercial plot in Rawalpindi's Saddar area valued at around Rs50 million.

According to The News, the former senior civil servant has not been proven guilty or convicted in any case and that he was in the NAB's custody since May 31, 2018.

Fawad served as secretary implementation, Punjab health secretary, and additional secretary for Prime Minister’s Office.