NAB to seek Salman Shehbaz’s extradition
Anti-graft body decides to approach National Crime Agency in UK and Interpol
An accountability court in Lahore had issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Salman Shehbaz and declared him a proclaimed offender. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The country’s top anti-graft body has decided to approach the National Crime Agency in UK and Interpol for the extradition of Salman Shehbaz, son of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, as he had been declared a fugitive in a money laundering case against the Sharif family.
According to a spokesperson for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an accountability court in Lahore had issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Salman and declared him a proclaimed offender.
He added that NAB would request the National Crime Agency and Interpol to deport Salman, who is in London, and provide all possible assistance to them for this purpose as per law.
PTI moves to hire people in plea bargains with NAB
In October last year, an accountability court in Lahore had declared Salman a proclaimed offender after a NAB prosecutor said the bureau had issued at least six call-up notices to the suspect but he did not respond and had fled the country to escape the investigation.
He also told the court that the suspect’s property had already been seized on the court’s orders.
Earlier in April, NAB has claimed that it had found evidence of massive money laundering through which Shehbaz Sharif and his family members accumulated assets in the United Kingdom.
It maintained that the illegally accumulated assets were worth Rs85 billion to Rs100 billion and were bought during Shehbaz’s tenure as Punjab chief minister.
NAB’s probe found that Hamza Shehbaz’s declared assets in 2003 were worth less than Rs20 million, which increased by almost 2,000 per cent to over Rs410 million after his father became Punjab CM.
Similarly, his younger brother Suleman Shehbaz’s personal wealth increased 8,500 times and he now has assets worth more than Rs3 billion.
In June, Shehbaz while in NAB’s custody for the Ashiana Housing scam had recorded a statement that his son, Salman, was looking after his financial matters.
NAB seeks $17m for payment of penalty
Subsequently, NAB had formed a committee to probe the matter.
The anti-corruption watchdog also detained other suspects in the case, including opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz and Mushtaq alias Chini, who has turned approver in the case and confessed that he had been laundering money for the former ruling family.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar has claimed that Shehbaz had established dozens of paper front companies on employees’ name for money laundering and documentary evidence of all these unlawful transactions had been collected and it would not be easy for him to escape the law.
He added that the source of their income was telegraphic transfers (TTs) sent to them by poor employees of their companies. He said that the money was sent abroad through Hundi and then sent back via TTs.
He said through a paper firm ‘GNC’ transactions of billions of rupees were done by two front-men and close friends of Salman Shehbaz, Nisar Gill and Ali Ahmed. He said that Shehbaz Sharif had taken the plea that his sons were grown up and he was not responsible for their actions. However, he appointed Nisar Gill and Ali Ahmed in Chief Minister’s office as Director on Political Affairs and Director Policy.
Akbar added that a company titled as ‘Nisar Trading Company’ was registered in the name of Sharif Feed Mills employee Rashid Karamat and Rs425 million transactions were done in this firm’s account.
He said Rs450 million was deposited in the account of a company Khan Traders, registered in the name of the father of one Gulzar, an employee of Ramzan Sugar Mills.
He also said that Rs5 billion was deposited in the account of Maqsood and Co, a firm in the name of Malik Maqsood, who worked at the Sharif-owned Chiniot Energy Office as a peon.
Similarly, Rs350 million was deposited in the account of Azhar Abbas, Rs480 million in the account of Muhammad Anwar, Rs560 million in the account of Ghulam Shabbir and Rs210 million in the account of Tanveerul Haq, all employees of Ramzan Sugar Mills.
Overall Rs17.4 billion was deposited in paper firms and benami accounts of the employees of Shehbaz Sharif companies whose monthly salaries were from Rs18,000 per month to Rs70,000. He said that all details of these employees were available with Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) record and nobody could deny that they were not working with Shehbaz’s firms.
He said that as per collected documentary proofs, Rashid Karamat, resident of a slum near Gulberg, Lahore was a procurement assistant earning Rs18,000 per month. How were Rs450 million transferred in his account, he asked.
He said that two employees so Shehbaz Sharif namely Masroor Anwar and Shoaib Qamar transferred big amounts from Nisar Trading Company account to Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz accounts and copies of the CNICs of both of them were available with the concerned bank branches.
The country’s top anti-graft body has decided to approach the National Crime Agency in UK and Interpol for the extradition of Salman Shehbaz, son of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, as he had been declared a fugitive in a money laundering case against the Sharif family.
According to a spokesperson for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an accountability court in Lahore had issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Salman and declared him a proclaimed offender.
He added that NAB would request the National Crime Agency and Interpol to deport Salman, who is in London, and provide all possible assistance to them for this purpose as per law.
PTI moves to hire people in plea bargains with NAB
In October last year, an accountability court in Lahore had declared Salman a proclaimed offender after a NAB prosecutor said the bureau had issued at least six call-up notices to the suspect but he did not respond and had fled the country to escape the investigation.
He also told the court that the suspect’s property had already been seized on the court’s orders.
Earlier in April, NAB has claimed that it had found evidence of massive money laundering through which Shehbaz Sharif and his family members accumulated assets in the United Kingdom.
It maintained that the illegally accumulated assets were worth Rs85 billion to Rs100 billion and were bought during Shehbaz’s tenure as Punjab chief minister.
NAB’s probe found that Hamza Shehbaz’s declared assets in 2003 were worth less than Rs20 million, which increased by almost 2,000 per cent to over Rs410 million after his father became Punjab CM.
Similarly, his younger brother Suleman Shehbaz’s personal wealth increased 8,500 times and he now has assets worth more than Rs3 billion.
In June, Shehbaz while in NAB’s custody for the Ashiana Housing scam had recorded a statement that his son, Salman, was looking after his financial matters.
NAB seeks $17m for payment of penalty
Subsequently, NAB had formed a committee to probe the matter.
The anti-corruption watchdog also detained other suspects in the case, including opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz and Mushtaq alias Chini, who has turned approver in the case and confessed that he had been laundering money for the former ruling family.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar has claimed that Shehbaz had established dozens of paper front companies on employees’ name for money laundering and documentary evidence of all these unlawful transactions had been collected and it would not be easy for him to escape the law.
He added that the source of their income was telegraphic transfers (TTs) sent to them by poor employees of their companies. He said that the money was sent abroad through Hundi and then sent back via TTs.
He said through a paper firm ‘GNC’ transactions of billions of rupees were done by two front-men and close friends of Salman Shehbaz, Nisar Gill and Ali Ahmed. He said that Shehbaz Sharif had taken the plea that his sons were grown up and he was not responsible for their actions. However, he appointed Nisar Gill and Ali Ahmed in Chief Minister’s office as Director on Political Affairs and Director Policy.
Akbar added that a company titled as ‘Nisar Trading Company’ was registered in the name of Sharif Feed Mills employee Rashid Karamat and Rs425 million transactions were done in this firm’s account.
He said Rs450 million was deposited in the account of a company Khan Traders, registered in the name of the father of one Gulzar, an employee of Ramzan Sugar Mills.
He also said that Rs5 billion was deposited in the account of Maqsood and Co, a firm in the name of Malik Maqsood, who worked at the Sharif-owned Chiniot Energy Office as a peon.
Similarly, Rs350 million was deposited in the account of Azhar Abbas, Rs480 million in the account of Muhammad Anwar, Rs560 million in the account of Ghulam Shabbir and Rs210 million in the account of Tanveerul Haq, all employees of Ramzan Sugar Mills.
Overall Rs17.4 billion was deposited in paper firms and benami accounts of the employees of Shehbaz Sharif companies whose monthly salaries were from Rs18,000 per month to Rs70,000. He said that all details of these employees were available with Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) record and nobody could deny that they were not working with Shehbaz’s firms.
He said that as per collected documentary proofs, Rashid Karamat, resident of a slum near Gulberg, Lahore was a procurement assistant earning Rs18,000 per month. How were Rs450 million transferred in his account, he asked.
He said that two employees so Shehbaz Sharif namely Masroor Anwar and Shoaib Qamar transferred big amounts from Nisar Trading Company account to Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz accounts and copies of the CNICs of both of them were available with the concerned bank branches.