TV Talk: Hussain Nawaz throws gauntlet at Imran

Dares PTI chief to prove Sharif family’s bank default

ISLAMABAD: Hussain Nawaz Sharif on Monday trashed Imran Khan’s allegations about the Sharif family’s Rs6 billion bank default, stating they were ready to face the courts if the same were proved true.

“Imran Khan only talks about bank default, but he never presented any evidence, like the name of the banks the Sharif family has defaulted against,” Hussain said talking to Javed Chaudhry on Express News show Kal Tak.

Hussain Nawaz, the elder son of PM Nawaz Sharif, said he owned apartments in London and three offshore companies, which were according to law and involved no illegality. He said that his brother Hasan Nawaz was doing business in London for the past 20 years. Hasan buys run-down properties at low prices and sells them after refurbishment.

He also rejected Imran’s criticism against the high cost of Metro project. Such projects could not be compared with other countries as values of real estate differed from country to country.

Regarding investigations against corruption, Hussain Nawaz said probes against scandals should be carried out in every part of the country. “If there are any issues in Punjab requiring probe, there should be no bar on initiating accountability there,” he said.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif or the Prime Minister House never intervened in the affairs of the corruption watchdogs, including National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

To exile and back

Replying to a question, he said when the Sharif family was forced into exile, it was penniless, but some close friends and sympathizers had loaned them without any condition to start business. All of those loans, he added, had been paid back on time.

During this course of time, he said the Sharif family had bought an abandoned mill in Dubai and restored it. No foreign government extended any financial support to the Sharif family for establishing business.

Hussain called on accountability bodies to try former president Pervez Musharraf. He said he could forgive Pervez Musharraf for what he did to them but what he did to the country was irreparable.

Musharraf overthrew the PML-N government in 1999. Hussain recalled how he was imprisoned for 14 months for nothing and the way Sharif family was exiled empty-handed. However Musharraf failed to prove any charges. “Would Musharraf have pardoned us, had we been involved in any corruption?” he questioned.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2016.