Islamabad, Feb 20: Pakistan’s top anti-graft body on Wednesday arrested Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani from a hotel in Islamabad, triggering a strong protest from the Pakistan People’s Party which termed the detention of its senior leader as “unacceptable”.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Karachi has accused Durrani of illegal appointments, misuse of power, misappropriation of funds and owning assets beyond his known means of income.
Citing the NAB officials, DawnNewsTV said that they waited for Durrani to leave Sindh province before making the arrest as Durrani is escorted by his sizable security team in his home province and the officials feared a confrontation would turn violent.
The NAB Karachi team travelled to Islamabad to arrest him. He was initially taken to the NAB Rawalpindi office after which NAB obtained three-day transit remand to bring him back to Karachi for the investigation.
Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir granted the three-day transit, with instructions to produce him in the relevant court in Karachi within three days.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari slammed the arrest of senior party leader, saying that his party would not allow the “benaami wazeer-e-azam” to establish a dictatorship.
“Attack on (the) speaker of (a) federating unit is unacceptable. (An) undemocratic attempt to dislodge Sindh govt. Failed before will fail again. Independent institutions shouldnt unwittingly be part of political engineering,” he tweeted.
Soon after Durrani’s arrest, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari asked his party leaders to converge in the capital.
Last year in July, NAB had approved an inquiry against Durrani over various allegations of corruption.
