Former federal minister and former PTI leader Malik Amin Aslam on Thursday recorded his statement to the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Joint Investigation Team (JIT) at the bureau’s Rawalpindi office in 190 million pounds corruption case, also known as Al-Qadir Trust case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Sources told 24News that the NAB team grilled Aslam for two hours.  

Later talking to the media, the ex-minister said the reason why he had been called by the NAB was that he was present at the cabinet meeting at which Al-Qadir Trust had been discussed.

When asked whether he was going to become an approver in the case, Aslam replied in negative.

Giving details of the questions he was asked, ex-PTI leader said that the JIT asked him about the ministers who had signed the secret document at the meeting. “They also asked me other details of the meeting,” he disclosed.

“Since I was an advisor in the PTI cabinet, I did not participate in voting,” he elaborated.  

Aslam further said he thought that former special assistant to prime minister Shahzad Akbar must return to Pakistan. “He is connected to the case. Therefore, it looks inappropriate that he sits in London and does not cooperate with the investigators,” he said.

Aslam, who was the head of Billion Tree Tsunami project in the PTI government, had left the party following the incidents of violence on May 9.

Al-Qadir Trust case of 190 million pounds graft case basically centers round former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who had been arrested in this connection on May 9 this year.

As per the charges, Imran and other suspects in the case had allegedly adjusted Rs50 billion, 190 million pounds at the time, sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of the agreement with property tycoon Malik Riaz.

They are also accused of getting undue benefit from Riaz in the form of over 458 kanals of land at Sohawa for establishing Al-Qadir University.

During the PTI government, the NCA had seized assets worth 190 million pounds from a property tycoon in Britain.

The agency said the assets would be passed to the government of Pakistan. Subsequently, then prime minister Imran got an approval of the settlement with the UK’s agency from his cabinet on December 3, 2019, without disclosing details of the agreement.

PTI chairman and his aides, including his former special assistant Sania Nishtar, have denied any wrongdoing. The developer, too, has denied the charges.