An anti-corruption court on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s daughter Rabia Imran and her husband Ali Imran Yousaf in a case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the Punjab Saaf Pani Company reference.

Both accused appeared before the court, which approved their bail petitions and directed the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to submit its reply by May 6.

The couple had previously been declared proclaimed offenders due to their absence from the country. However, they later approached a court, which suspended their arrest warrants last week and allowed them to surrender to the law.

Subsequently, the case was transferred to the anti-corruption court after the accountability court lost jurisdiction following amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance.

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According to the allegations, the couple received illegal financial benefits by renting out their private building to the company for use as office premises.

Other suspects in the case, including PM Shehbaz and several senior bureaucrats, have already been acquitted.

The Saaf Pani case surfaced in November 2017 when the NAB launched a comprehensive investigation into alleged corruption in 56 public-sector companies, including the Punjab Saaf Pani Company.

The probe highlighted claims of irregularities, violations of procurement rules, nepotism, and delays in project completion.

The PM’s daughter and son-in-law were also recently granted interim bail in another case on Tuesday in a reference related to alleged corruption in the Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC).

Background

The Saaf Pani scam had surfaced after the NAB had launched a probe in November 2017 into alleged corruption in the 56 public-sector companies, including the PSPC, formed by the administration in Punjab led by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif at the time.

NAB initiated an ‘Inquiry’ against the management, officers, and officials of the PSPC and others. This inquiry was converted into an investigation on August 20, 2018. During the investigations, NAB alleged, it transpired that a contract was awarded to the KSB Pumps for the installation of 82 water filtration plants at exorbitant rates and without proper approval of engineering estimates/technical sanction.

The illegal addendum of 36 additional filtration plants was also approved, wherein the scope of the project had already changed. The civil, electrical, and solar works were also executed at exorbitant rates during the installation of these water filtration plants in the Bahawalpur Region, the NAB had alleged.

NAB Lahore first arrested four people – Chief Technical Officer Dr Zaheerud Din, Chief Procurement Officer Nasir Qadir Badhal, Consultant Engineer M Saleem Akhtar and Managing Director KSB Pumps Masud Akhter on April 17, 2018.

Also read: Lahore court grants interim bail to PM’s daughter, son-in-law till May 7 in corruption case

They were followed by the arrest of Housing Deputy Secretary Khalid Nadeem Bukhari on May 2. NAB alleged that the accused disclosed the involvement of other co-accused Raja Qamarul Islam and former CEO Wasim Ajmal, who was also arrested on June 25, 2018.

Later, NAB arrested five more accused during the last week of November, 2018. They included former deputy secretary Zahoor Ahmed Dogar, former chief resident engineer Adnan Aftab Khan, resident engineer Masoodul Hassan, resident engineer Moeenud Din, and resident engineer Muhammad Younas.

According to the reference, the accused persons prepared the cost estimates at much higher rates, adding that the award of the contract resulted in causing a cumulative loss of Rs345.282 million to the national kitty.