Illegal wealth: NAB yet to reopen 14 cases against Sharifs
Cases have been dormant since Nawaz was exiled in 2000.
LAHORE:
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is yet to revive 14 cases against the Sharif brothers, their family members and bureaucrats associated with them, The Express Tribune learnt on good authority.
Meanwhile, the Punjab chapter of the anti-corruption watchdog has 11 dormant cases, while the Rawalpindi bureau of NAB has also not been able to reopen three references against top PML-N leaders, including ones concerning defaults on payment of loans by the Ittefaq Foundries, the Hudaibiya Paper Mills and Raiwind assets.
All of these cases have been dormant since Nawaz Sharif and his family were exiled in 2000.
Sources said that allegations against the Sharif brothers included amassing wealth and assets through illegal means, abuse of power, bank defaults, illegal plot allotment and land acquisition, import of luxury vehicles without import duty payment, using public funds for personal benefit, tax evasion, transfer of money through fake accounts to foreign countries and concealing valuable assets in and out of the country while filing details of their assets with the Election Commission of Pakistan.
A NAB official said that the 11 cases were called ‘MNS cases’ by NAB Punjab functionaries.
Sources told this correspondent that during executive board meetings held under former NAB Punjab director-general Maj-Gen Nasir Mahmood and Maj (retd) Shahnawaz Badar, these cases “were discussed, but no written remarks were recorded”.
“Relevant NAB officials were verbally advised to finalise…these cases and wait for further orders,” the sources said.
NAB Punjab Director A&P and spokesperson Atiqur Rehman said cases against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif “are yet to be revived by the bureau’s headquarters in Islamabad. We have not yet received any such instructions”.
“Only the NAB chief can authorise the launching of an inquiry or filing of a reference in accountability courts.”
In May last year, an accountability court in Rawalpindi had rejected NAB’s plea to reopen three pending corruption references against the Sharif brothers because the document did not bear NAB chief’s signatures.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2011.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is yet to revive 14 cases against the Sharif brothers, their family members and bureaucrats associated with them, The Express Tribune learnt on good authority.
Meanwhile, the Punjab chapter of the anti-corruption watchdog has 11 dormant cases, while the Rawalpindi bureau of NAB has also not been able to reopen three references against top PML-N leaders, including ones concerning defaults on payment of loans by the Ittefaq Foundries, the Hudaibiya Paper Mills and Raiwind assets.
All of these cases have been dormant since Nawaz Sharif and his family were exiled in 2000.
Sources said that allegations against the Sharif brothers included amassing wealth and assets through illegal means, abuse of power, bank defaults, illegal plot allotment and land acquisition, import of luxury vehicles without import duty payment, using public funds for personal benefit, tax evasion, transfer of money through fake accounts to foreign countries and concealing valuable assets in and out of the country while filing details of their assets with the Election Commission of Pakistan.
A NAB official said that the 11 cases were called ‘MNS cases’ by NAB Punjab functionaries.
Sources told this correspondent that during executive board meetings held under former NAB Punjab director-general Maj-Gen Nasir Mahmood and Maj (retd) Shahnawaz Badar, these cases “were discussed, but no written remarks were recorded”.
“Relevant NAB officials were verbally advised to finalise…these cases and wait for further orders,” the sources said.
NAB Punjab Director A&P and spokesperson Atiqur Rehman said cases against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif “are yet to be revived by the bureau’s headquarters in Islamabad. We have not yet received any such instructions”.
“Only the NAB chief can authorise the launching of an inquiry or filing of a reference in accountability courts.”
In May last year, an accountability court in Rawalpindi had rejected NAB’s plea to reopen three pending corruption references against the Sharif brothers because the document did not bear NAB chief’s signatures.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2011.