NAB get remand of arrested officer Shafqat Cheema of Foreign Office

Lahore: More facts has been revealed about the arrested officer of ministry of Foreign Affairs Shafqat Cheema. He was arrested in a car theft case in 1997 and  was kept on Establishment pool in 2007 due to his objectionable activities but Services Tribunal ordered to give posting to Shafqat Cheema in 2008.He had served as a under secretary in Spain and used all the powers delegated for envoy as there was no Ambassador in the Pakistani Embassy in Spain,He owned a hotel in Spain.

He also served as Director South Asia in Foreign Office.

NAB has got remand of Shafqat Cheema for further investigation.

Shafqat Cheema was arrested by NAB Rawalpindi on the complaint of ministry of foreign affairs yesterday on corruption charges.

It was proved during investigation that the accused enjoyed frequent foreign private tours with family to Europe and USA in recent years.

The accused is involved in making assets beyond known sources of income and the NAB investigation team also recovered Rs 50 million during raid. Shafqat was involved in human trafficking and looted money from innocent people, the NAB claimed. The accused was running a cable business company but his bank accounts showed heavy turnover.

DG NAB Rawalpindi Zahir Shah said that in the light of the directions of Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, all-out efforts are being made to arrest corrupt persons and recover the looted money from them.

He said that chairman NAB has categorically directed all officers to pursue proactively corruption cases as per NAB’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) transparently and on merit and take necessary measures to arrest corrupt persons and proclaimed offenders in order to eradicate corruption from the country.

A spokesman of Foreign Office commented on the arrest of Shafqat Cheema that Foreign Office believes in accountability and will fully cooperate with NAB.