Israr Saeed, the approver in the Aashiana reference, on Tuesday retracted his statement against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, saying he was pressurized to do so, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Israr, who is a chief engineer in the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), told an accountability court (AC) that DG NAB Shahzad Saleem, Director NAB Muhammad Rafi, and case officer Aftab Ahmad had put pressure on him to extract a false confession.
He went on to say that the first statement he had given was also given under pressure.
Moreover, he added, the DG NAB had asked him to give the statement that Shehbaz, who was then leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, had threatened him. “And the purpose of all that was to get Shehbaz’s bail cancelled,” he elaborated.
Israr further alleged that he had been told that if he did not become an approver, the inquiries against him that had been closed would be reopened.