KARACHI: An accountability court in Karachi on Thursday extended the physical remand of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in assets beyond means case for 10 more days.
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials produced the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader in the court upon completion of his previous remand and requested 15-day extension in his remand for further investigation.
Over the course of the hearing, the accountability judge asked Durrani if he was tortured by officials in NAB custody, to which he replied they misbehaved with his family members. He alleged that his cook, driver and other employees were being persecuted.
Durrani complained to the judge that he was kept in a room where there was no adequate ventilation and that he was not being permitted to meet his brother.
Read Also: Fearing investigations, Agha Siraj Durrani’s family leaves for US: sources
Rejecting the PPP leader’s allegations, the NAB investigating officer stated the accused was being provided facilities as he was even interrogated in an air-conditioned room. What more facilities NAB could provide him, he questioned. He said the speaker went to the Sindh Assembly on a daily basis due to which they were unable to complete investigation against him.
In the previous hearing, the NAB prosecutor had stated before the court that more properties owned by the accused have surfaced during the investigation. Durrani had a property in Abbottabad, whose value he had declared at Rs4 million against the actual value of Rs27 million, he said, adding ten wristwatches worth millions of rupees, gold and foreign currency were found from the suspect’s lockers.