ISLAMABAD, Oct 27 (INP): National Assembly Speaker (NA) Asad Qaiser on Saturday has issued production order for Leader of Opposairtion in the NA Shehbaz Sharif to attend session on October 29.

According to details, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team will escort Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president to Islamabad for the session.

Earlier on October 24, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq submitted a formal request to National Assembly Speaker (NA) Asad Qaisar to reissue production order of Opposition Leader in NA Shehbaz Sharif to attend the session on October 29. It is to be mentioned here that Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody on a physical remand in Ahsiana Housing scam, attended the previous NA session after his production order was issued.

[timed-content-server show="10/28/2018 01:00 Asia/Karachi"]While addressing the House, Shehbaz Sharif said, “Speaker Asad Qaisar dispensed constitutional duty by issuing production order for me so I am thankful to him for rising above party politics.” Earlier, an accountability court in Lahore had extended Shehbaz physical remand to the anti-graft watchdog for 14 days after his previous 10-day remand ended on October 16. During the proceedings, Shehbaz maintained he himself ordered investigation into corruption allegations in the housing scheme and denies awarding contracts to a favorite firm. He was arrested on October 5 after appearing before the NAB team in Saaf Paani Company scheme. NAB said Shehbaz failed to satisfy the investigation team regarding a tender awarded to a private consultancy firm and was therefore arrested. The anti-graft watchdog said the firm did not conduct any kind of survey but nevertheless was provided a lucrative sum of 1.5 billion rupees. It added that Fawad Hassan Fawad, the principal secretary of former premier Nawaz Sharif, had become an approver in the case. Fawad, in his statement, had claimed that he had awarded a contract to a “favourite firm” in the Rs14 billion Ashiana Housing project at the behest of Shehbaz Sharif. The anti-graft agency said that the contract for the housing scheme was won by a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons but Sharif cancelled it and later on awarded the contract to Lahore Casa Developers – a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by former Railways minister Saad Rafique. INP/AJ[/timed-content-server]