Pakistan’s anti-graft body has summoned the country’s envoy to the U.S., Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, to question him for allegedly paying Rs. 15 crore in bribe to a top government official to get the plum diplomatic post, a senior official said on Thursday.
Ambassador Siddiqui has been issued a notice to appear before the National Accountability Bureau on October 19. “The National Accountability Bureau, Lahore has summoned Siddiqui on October 19 after a transaction of Rs. 15 crore between him and former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Fawad Hasan Fawad, has surfaced,” a senior NAB official said.
He said an investigation into Mr. Fawad’s income beyond means case revealed that Mr. Siddiqui had paid him Rs. 15 crore in bribe to get approval from former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for his appointment as Ambassador to the U.S. An offcial said that the NAB had also termed Mr. Siddiqui’s reply in another case of stock manipulation “unsatisfactory”.
