Justice Ijazul Ahsan allows NAB to record statements of JIT members

Graft watchdog wants to file references against Sharif family with an accountability court by September 10

Supreme Court's Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who has been tasked by the apex court to oversee the National Accountability Bureau's reference proceedings against the Sharif family, has allowed the bureau to record the statements of JIT members who investigated the Panama Papers case.

The watchdog had earlier requested the Supreme Court to allow it to record the JIT investigators' statement and the apex court approved the request on Saturday, according to a notification.



 

Meanwhile, NAB has directed its Rawalpindi and Lahore investigators to submit the report of their probe into the Sharif family offshore assets before the Eidul Azha holidays.

The graft watchdog is trying to file its references against the Sharif family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar with an accountability court in line with the top court's orders by September 10, Express News reported.

The Supreme Court had ordered the bureau to prepare and submit the references within six weeks after it disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from office on July 28.



NAB Lahore and Rawalpindi branches will prepare and send their investigation report to the NAB prosecution wing in Islamabad by August 31. The prosecution and operations wing will then send their report to the NAB chairman.

Once the report is received, the NAB executive board will hold a meeting to approve it and then submit it to an accountability court.

The NAB Rawalpindi and Lahore branches have already received the records of the Sharif family’s tax returns from the Federal Board of Revenue and account details from the State Bank of Pakistan.

Amjad Nazeer Aulhaq from NAB Lahore and Rizwan Khan from NAB Rawalpindi are working on the investigation.

So far, no member of the Sharif family has appeared before before NAB to record their statements. Besides, no member of the Supreme Court-appointed Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that probed into the Sharif family's offshore assets following the Panama Papers leak has appeared before NAB either. However, with Saturday's SC order, JIT members would now record their statements.



JIT member Irfan Mangi maintained that the team had submitted all its investigation records to the Supreme Court. The Sharif family's counsel has contended that as his clients had filed a review petition in the apex court against its verdict, they would not appear before NAB.

On Friday, NAB received the details of 26 accounts operated by Nawaz and his family, inching it closer to filing the court-mandated references.

However, the Sharif family has already expressed its distrust in the ongoing accountability process and has repeatedly refused to appear before NAB investigators to record their statements under Section 161 of the CrPc.