Luxury vehicles case probe extended to Nawaz

Former president Zardari arrested in Park Lane Company case

ISLAMABAD:  

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) widened its probe into Toshakhana vehicles case against former president Asif Zardari to include former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in its investigation, as it arrested the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman in another case on Monday.

The country’ premier graft-buster had nominated Sharif and Zardari in a case of taking cars from the government storehouse. The accountability court on Monday given permission to NAB to investigate Sharif, who is already under imprisonment.

NAB Deputy Director Raheel Azam, the investigation officer in the case, filed a petition in the accountability court Islamabad on Monday in which he maintained that investigation against Zardari continued on charges of taking Mercedes cars from storehouse and causing loss to the national kitty.

He informed the court that Sharif has taken a car from the storehouse and requested the court to allow him to investigate Sharif. On a court query, he informed Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik that Sharif had to be investigated as an accused in the case.

Azam informed the court that three cars were taken by Zardari and one by Sharif. The investigation officer alleged that Zardari obtained three Mercedes cars from the storehouse and its payments were made from fake accounts.

NAB names firms that allegedly transferred money to Sharifs

Azam told the court that a Mercedes car was given to Sharif by the Saudi government in 1997 when he was the prime minister. In 2008, the then prime minister Yusuf Raza Gillani gave it to Sharif for Rs600,000. Citing that as an example, three cars were given by him to Zardari.

The investigation officer said any item worth Rs400,000 can be kept as a gift but there is no permission to keep the car. He added that the then cabinet secretary had moved the wrong summary in this regard.

“Cars given as gifts can’t be kept by president or the prime minister. They go to the cabinet,” Azam said. When the judge asked what if they return the car, Azam replied that it would be plea-bargain which would be made with court’s permission. The court then allowed NAB to investigate Sharif.
The development comes as NAB arrested Zardari in the Park Lane Company case. NAB is expected to present him in the court in the next 24 hours to seek his physical remand. According to reports, the Park Lane case was being investigated under the NAB laws and Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Zardari is already in NAB custody on physical remand until July 2. He was arrested on June 10 by NAB in the fake accounts case. His arrest warrants in the Park Lane case were issued by NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal.
On June 26, the former president withdrew his bail applications in the Park Lane Company, bulletproof cars, and Toshakhana cases, telling the court that he had a team of capable lawyers and he had faith in their abilities but there was no use of filing bail pleas as NAB would implicate him in new cases.

PPP reaction

Commenting on Zardari’s arrest in the second case, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s spokesman said that the party leadership was being maligned through a media trial. Spokesman Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said that the party was not afriad of NAB.
Khokhar siad that PPP chairman had nothing to do with the Park Lane matters. He was made a shareholder in the company, when he was just one-year old and had never been involved in the financial or administrative matters of the company.
“[Party leaders] are ready to face fake cases. If they [NAB] wanted to arrest them it can. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will not seek bail,” the spokesman said in a statement issued on Monday.