LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday allowed post-arrest bail to former defence minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif in an inquiry of assets beyond known sources of income and money laundering.

Earlier, Asif’s counsel argued before the bench that the petitioner during his remand with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was not confronted with any evidence which could prove owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

He said mere ownership of a property did not constitute an offence under section 9 (a) (v) of National Accountability Ordinance.

He stated that the petitioner had already provided the NAB with an explanation of various sources of income justifying the acquisition of the assets owned and possessed by him. He argued that onus to prove the allegations of owning any illegal asset was on the prosecution and it failed to establish its case.

The NAB prosecutor argued that Khawaja Asif failed to give the money trail transfer from UAE and also the details of his assets. He also failed to provide the details of his salaries received from the UAE company. He also failed to explain whether he received the salaries in cash or through cheques.

He said the company in UAE also not confirmed the details of his salaries. The counsel of Khawja replying to the prosecutor said that the UAE company was not ready to provide the details to NAB except any judicial forum.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021