CPEC: Pakistani PM’s former aide serves defamation suit on Rawalpindi Commissioner for corruption allegations

Rawalpindi: British-Pakistani Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari, a former aide of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has filed a defamation suit against the commissioner of Rawalpindi for accusing him of corruption in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s Ring Road project construction.

Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari, known as Zulfi Bukhari, has demanded Pakistani Rs 1 billion in damages for “slander and libel.”

The local court of Rawalpindi summoned Rawalpindi Commissioner Gulzar Hussain Shah in either his personal capacity or a counsel on his behalf to face defamation suit by Bukhari. However, Shah did not appear before the court.

The commissioner in question, Gulzar Hussain Shah, had alleged that Zulfi Bukhari was involved in the corruption.

Earlier this year, Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had given clean chit to Bukhari, a former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM), and Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan in the Rawalpindi Ring Road scam.

Bukhari resigned from his post as the SAPM for overseas Pakistanis and human resource development on May 17 to clear his name.

According to the ACE’s inquiry report, large-scale irregularities were found in the Rawalpindi Ring Road project. Due to the alleged irregularities and changes in original design, the cost of the project increased from Pakistani Rs 2 billion to Rs 60 billion, read the report.

In the same case earlier, the former commissioner of Rawalpindi, Captain Muhammad Mahmood (retd), had approached an Anti-Corruption Court seeking post-arrest bail.