LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has been asked to order the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other investigating agencies to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the Dubai leaks concerning properties owned by Pakistani citizens, including politicians and armed officers.

Citizen Mashkoor Hussain, in his petition filed through Advocate Nadeem Sarwar, stated that he approached the court for the public good. He argued that the leaked data provided a detailed overview of properties in Dubai owned by around 17,000 Pakistani citizens, with information about their ownership or usage largely from 2020 and 2022.

The petitioner contended that a detailed probe should be conducted to ascertain whether the properties mentioned in the Dubai leaks were fully declared by their owners before the competent authorities. He urged the authorities to determine whether these properties had been purchased through tax evasion or illegal means.

If any individual is found involved in the Dubai leaks through tax evasion, money laundering, or any other illegal means, the petitioner demanded stern action against them under relevant laws.

The petitioner also asked the court to monitor all investigation proceedings and ordered the federal government to provide all reports/progress until the final adjudication of this petition.

The respondents listed in the petition include the Federal Investigation Agency, Federal Board of Revenue, and the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Askari Tower: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday directed the prosecution to distribute copies of the challan (investigation report) among the suspects of the Askari Tower attack case on June 5.

Earlier, the police produced PTI Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid, former governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema, Senator Ejaz Chaudhry and other incarcerated suspects before the court.

Fashion designer Khadija Shah and other suspects, who have been released on bail, also appeared before the court to attend the trial proceedings.

Judge Arshad Javed marked the attendance of the suspects and put off the hearing till June 5 for the distribution of the copies of the challan.

The judge also summoned police record in the bail petitions of former governor Cheema in four cases of the May 9 riots. He adjourned the bail petitions in cases of Shadman police station attack and burning police vehicles outside Zaman Park till May 24.

The hearing in two cases of torching police vehicles in cantonment was adjourned till May 22.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2024