Aleem remanded in NAB custody for eight days.

LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday remanded former senior minister of Punjab Abdul Aleem Khan in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for eight days in connection with inquiries against him on charges of accumulating assets beyond means and malpractices.

Extraordinary security measures were taken outside the judicial complex housing the accountability courts as all adjacent roads were closed for routine traffic by placing containers and barbed wire before the appearance of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader, who was arrested on Wednesday.

Hundreds of PTI workers and a few leaders, including former MPA Shoaib Siddiqui, managed to gather outside the complex and showed their support for the former senior minister.

NAB officials produced Mr Khan before the court by using the judges' compound without seeking any permission from the authorities concerned that caused inconvenience to the judges of other courts and also damaged the rear door of the complex on the ground floor.

The registrar of the accountability courts also took notice of the objectionable act of the officials and issued a show-cause notice to the NAB team concerned and directed them to personally appear before Administrative Judge Syed Najamul Hassan Bokhari on Friday (today).

At the outset of the hearing, NAB special prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua submitted an application to the court with a request to grant a 15-day physical remand of Aleem Khan. Revealing the grounds for the remand, he stated that the suspect being a public office holder acquired huge assets and established offshore companies that owned apartments and bank accounts. He said all these things were not proportionate to the known sources of income of the suspect.

The prosecutor further said that the suspect acquired more than 900 kanals of land worth Rs600 million approximately in different parts of Lahore in the name of his company M/s A and A Pvt Ltd and also paid a huge amount for additional 632 kanals of land which the suspect failed to justify.

He pointed out that Mr Khan won Rs19 million out of a prize bond draw in 2002 while he transferred Rs190 million to his father and Rs198m to his mother...