CJP forms new bench to hear Hudabiya Paper Mills case

Three-judge bench to take up NAB appeal on 28th

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Chief Justice on Saturday formed a special bench to hear an appeal by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Lahore High Court’s order to quash Rs1.2 billion Hudabiya Papers Mills reference against the Sharif family, fixing November 28 for the maiden hearing.

The three-judge bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, would take up the NAB appeal against the LHC order.

Earlier, the matter was fixed before a bench led by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, who recused to hear the case.

NAB’s Deputy Prosecutor-General Imranul Haq is expected to represent the bureau in the case.

 



Some 17 years ago, the NAB claimed that Nawaz Sharif, then prime minister, and his family received more than Rs1 billion ‘through illegal and fraudulent means’ and that they were liable to be tried under anti-corruption laws in relation to the Hudabiya Papers Mills.

In 2014, the LHC quashed the reference concerning the Hudabiya Papers Mills against the Sharif family. However, NAB did not challenge LHC’s order at that time.

According to NAB documents – obtained by The Express Tribune – Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, his father Mian Muhammad Sharif, brothers Shehbaz and Abbas Sharif, Abbas’s wife Sabiha, Sharif’s son Hussain and Shahbaz’s son Hamza had been accused of receiving ‘ill-gotten money’ in the case.

“All accused in collusion and in connivance with each other appear to have committed acts of corruption … as defined under Section 9 read with Section 10 of the NAB Ordinance,” NAB’s former chairman Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool had told an accountability court.

Interestingly, NAB had filed two references in the Hudabiya case.

Former finance minister Ishaq Dar was nominated as an accused in the initial reference, but NAB excluded his name in its final reference after he offered to act as state witness.

“There was an unexplained investment of Rs642.743m appearing in books of the HPM [Hudabiya Papers Mills] as share deposit money. The same belonged to directors and/or shareholders and beneficial owners of the company, which they fraudulently amassed under the garb of foreign equity investment,” said the final reference.



It said the company in 1999 settled its loan with London-based Al-Towfeek Company for investment funds by paying $8.7 million and the source of this payment also appeared to be doubtful.

“It appears from the evidence that in order to launder and conceal their ill-gotten wealth, both Sharif brothers appeared to have fraudulently opened fictitious foreign currency accounts in names of various individuals with active connivance of … their close associates and employees.”

NAB filed an appeal against the LHC order in September this year after three years.

The NAB appeal stated that the referee judge was not ‘competent’ to set aside the findings of the high court, in which NAB had been allowed to re-initiate investigations against members of the Sharif family.

It said when the joint investigating team (JIT) was formed to probe corruption allegations against the Sharif family in the Panamagate case, it collected further incriminating evidence relating to the papers mills.

“NAB cannot be debarred/ restrained from proceeding further with the investigation,” it said in its appeal.