Helicopter scam: Imran seeks time to appear before NAB due to ‘busy schedule’

Helicopter scam: Imran seeks time to appear before NAB due to ‘busy schedule’

Peshawar (Staff Report): Imran Khan skipped the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appearance, seeking more time as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman is busy in upcoming election campaign.

The anti-graft watchdog had summoned the PTI chief on July 18 in a case pertaining to misuse of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government helicopter.

Khan’s counsel, Babar Awan, sent a letter to the NAB requesting it to fix the case for August 18.

Awan said that the party chief is busy in the election campaign as the general elections are around the corner. Sources claimed that the probe body is likely to re-schedule the case.

In a statement, the PTI welcomed NAB’s investigation into alleged misuse of helicopter and stated that it always supports fair probe.

The KP government had denied that Khan had used any official helicopter for his private or personal use.

On Feb 2, the chairman of NAB, Javed Iqbal directed KP Director General (DG) Naveed Haider to ascertain how former KP chief minister Pervez Khattak handed over his official helicopter to someone else and find out if the same was repeated with other individuals.

On Feb 3, Imran Khan said that the KP government had made clear that there was never any personal or private use of government helicopters by him. He also said that NAB was most welcome to examine the issue.

A joint investigation team (JIT), headed by KP DG, was set up to investigate the matter.