PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned provincial lawmaker Dr Amjad Ali to its Hayatabad office on Tuesday in an inquiry into alleged assets beyond known income and suspected corruption.
Ali is a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and special assistant to the chief minister on housing. NAB said it opened the inquiry after receiving a complaint. Five notices have been issued in the matter.
Besides Ali, the bureau has called Bacha Syed, Muhammad Arif Shah, Siraj Ahmad and Naveed Ahmad as witnesses. Their appearances are scheduled for October 20-22.
Investigators have requested records from housing societies covering property allotments, ownership and payments. They have separately asked the Accountant General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for details of Ali’s salary, allowances, benefits and travel expenses.
NAB warned in its summons that failure to comply could result in legal action. The allegations remain under inquiry.
Earlier court proceedings addressed Ali’s complaints about the bureau’s conduct. In March, the Peshawar High Court disposed of his writ petition while directing NAB to act strictly within the law and refrain from harassing him.
During that hearing, counsel Bashir Wazir argued that Ali had already submitted his asset records. He contended that another notice, despite earlier directions restricting repeated summonses, amounted to harassment.
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However, NAB special prosecutor Arbab Kaleemullah told the bench that no call-up notice had been issued to Ali himself at that stage.
Instead, a female relative and a close associate had been summoned as witnesses. Kaleemullah alleged that certain assets registered in their names belonged to Ali and had not been declared.
Justices Syed Arshad Ali and Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah directed the bureau to proceed in accordance with the law. They observed that Ali could submit an appropriate application if he considered himself subject to harassment.
Those submissions concerned the position before the court in March. They do not constitute Ali’s response to the latest notices. The four witnesses have been directed to attend the bureau by Thursday.
