Maryam not a beneficiary of Chaudhary Sugar Mills, court told

Accountability bureau to give arguments on Maryam’s bail plea today

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will present today (Thursday) its arguments against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz’s application to grant her bail in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills (CSM) case.

Maryam was arrested by NAB in August and has been in custody of the accountability watchdog, which accused her of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under section 9(a) of NAO 1999 and schedule thereto and AML Act 2010.

NAB claimed that she aided and abetted co-accused persons –former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and others – in acquiring and laundering funds, which, it alleged, were disproportionate to the known sources of income of Nawaz.  It accused Maryam of being a beneficiary of the assets.

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On Wednesday, Maryam’s counsel Amjad Pervez contended that the accused had not been a beneficiary of the CSM nor she had actively served as its director and chief executive officer (CEO).

He said she had never done any material work while serving at the aforementioned posts and was a minor when the CSM was established in 1991.

“The business control of the CSM had been in the hands of her grandfather, Mian Sharif, and then its control went into the hands of Abbas Sharif, Maryam’s uncle. Later, Abbas’s son Yousaf Abbas assumed control of the business,” he said.

The counsel implored that false cases had been registered against Sharif family despite the fact that the accused had nothing to do with those cases. He said the joint investigation team (JIT) formed in the wake of Panama Papers scandal had also probed the Sharif family with regard to the CSM but had not found any evidence of wrongdoing

He said the JIT had later submitted a detailed report in the country’s top court in 2017.

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Pervaiz contended that the CSM was also included in Al-Azizia reference but no case was made against Nawaz Sharif in this regard.  The CSM had also been included in Hudabiya Mills case which had already been quashed.  “This is the third time when the CSM is being discussed,” Pervez said.

In her bail plea, Maryam has sought ad-interim post arrest bail, contending that her family was implicated in a fake money laundering case and now they are being victimized.

She submitted that NAB laws were misused for the purpose of her arrest in the CSM reference. She expressed dismay over the alleged partial role of the JIT that probed Panama Papers case.

She implored the court that the JIT rather than playing an impartial role had its own agenda to implicate her family by any means whatsoever. It was for this reason the petitioner was summoned to join the investigation although there was no such direction in apex court judgment dated April 20,2017, she said.