A team of the Punjab Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Monday arrived at the Islamabad\u2019s Secretariat Police Station in compliance with the orders of a Rawalpindi court seeking the arrest of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah in an inquiry related to purchase of plots in a housing society at a \u201cthrowaway price\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister for Anti-Corruption retired Brigadier Musaddiq Abbasi, Sanaullah had taken two plots as \u201cbribe\u201d from an \u201cillegal housing society\u201d \u2014 the Bismillah Housing Scheme \u2014 in Chakwal district.<\/p>\n
Earlier today, a special judicial magistrate of Rawalpindi issued directions to the Punjab ACE officials, asking them to arrest and produce Sanaullah before the court.<\/p>\n
The hearing was conducted by special judicial magistrate of Rawalpindi Ghulam Akbar, who had also issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for Sanaullah at the request of the ACE last week.<\/p>\n
The ACE had obtained the minister\u2019s warrant since he allegedly failed to comply with repeated summons in case number 19\/20 registered with the anti-graft body.<\/p>\n
Akhlaq Ahmed, the owner of the society, has also been booked for allegedly bribing Sanaullah with a plot to get his society registered, claimed the prosecution.<\/p>\n
At the hearing today, the ACE team requested the court to declare the minister \u201cproclaimed offender\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the magistrate turned down the plea, saying the suspect could not be declared proclaimed offender at this stage.<\/p>\n
The court directed the ACE to take into custody and produce the minister before the judge.<\/p>\n
In response, the officials told the court that they would approach the Ministry of Interior if police extended cooperation in the case.<\/p>\n
Abbasi, the Punjab CM\u2019s adviser, said on Saturday the ACE had initiated an inquiry against Mr Sanaullah (in 2017), who was then the Punjab law minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the investigation, it has been revealed that in the opening ceremony of Bismillah Housing Society, Colony Kallar Kahar, Rana Sanaullah, who was provincial law minister at that time, participated along with his wife. The housing society\u2019s owner gifted Mr Sanaullah two plots measuring 10 kanals as a bribe,\u201d the adviser had said and added the plots in question were transferred to Sanaullah by the society at a much lower than scheduled rate.<\/p>\n
Abbasi had said these two plots were still in the possession of Sanaullah and his wife, which itself was \u201cproof\u201d that he had got these as a bribe by using his official position.<\/p>\n
He said the case was registered in 2019 but the minister did not appear before ACE. \u201cSanaullah was re-summoned on Oct 6 but he did not appear before the ACE after which non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The retired brigadier said the ACE was taking indiscriminate action against the corrupt elements and no one was above the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A team of the Punjab Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Monday arrived at the Islamabad\u2019s Secretariat Police Station in compliance with the orders of a Rawalpindi court seeking the arrest of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah in an inquiry related to purchase of plots in a housing society at a \u201cthrowaway price\u201d. According to Adviser to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[480,362,1446],"class_list":{"0":"post-288376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-pmln","10":"tag-rana-sanaullah"},"yoast_head":"\n