Former prime minister Imran Khan, who was arrested on Tuesday, is likely to remain under the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for four to five days, as the bureau requests the court for his maximum remand allowed under the law.
A NAB source told Dawn on Tuesday that Imran Khan will be presented before the accountability court today (Wednesday).
"We will do our best to keep him under custody for at least four to five days," the source said.
Under new amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, the duration of physical remand has been cut from 90 days to 14 days, granted by any court.
"We will seek the maximum physical remand of 14 days from the court," he said, adding that the court was expected to grant at least four to five days remand.
When asked about the condition of the PTI chief, the source said Imran Khan was detained in NAB's Rawalpindi/Islamabad regional headquarters "in a comfortable atmosphere".
Khan will not be "treated harshly", rather he will only be questioned regarding his alleged involvement in the case and seeking monetary benefits.
In an official statement, the bureau has also given the details about the case against Khan.
'Lawful arrest'
The anti-graft watchdog has also justified Khan's arrest with the help of Rangers from inside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) premises on Tuesday and termed it legal and purely according to the NAB laws.
"NAB arrested former prime minister Imran Khan in the Al-Qadir Trust case. The case relates to illegal acquisition of land and construction for Al-Qadir University involving unlawful benefit given in recovery of prime proceeds (190 million pounds) through National Crime Agency, UK," the statement said.
"The arrest has been made after fulfilling the lawful procedures of inquiry and investigation conducted by NAB," the anti-graft watchdog asserted.
It said during the process of inquiry/investigation, several notices were issued to Khan and his wife as they were the trustees of Al-Qadir Trust.
"However, none of the call-up notices was responded to by the former prime minister or his wife."
Meanwhile, the NAB is also out to arrest other alleged characters in the Al-Qadir University and Trust case — in which Khan was arrested — and has completed the process to issue a red warrant through Interpol to arrest Khan's former adviser on accountability, Shehzad Akbar.
The name statement accused Akbar of being "the key person" in the case.
"He
and the former prime minister misled the federal cabinet by concealing the documents related to the settlement agreement. Money was received under the settlement agreement and was supposed to be deposited in the national exchequer," it added.The NAB statement said the process of issuing of Red notice against former adviser Shehzad Akbar, who is absconding, has already been initiated.
During the inquiry, NAB served notices to as many as 21 PTI leaders, who were part of the federal cabinet when the summary to deposit the money in the Supreme Court's account was approved. These members included Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Murad Saeed, Pervez Khattak, Shafqat Mahmood, Shireen Mazari, Ali Zaidi and Hammad Azhar.
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