UK firm claims Nawaz offered bribe to stop probe of his offshore assets

Sharif family has assets not only in UK but across the world, says Broadsheet CEO

ISLAMABAD:

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif offered bribe to Broadsheet for abandoning probe against his foreign assets, Broadsheet Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kaveh Moussavi said.

In an interview to a web TV, he said the Broadsheet had flatly refused the deal offered by a person claiming himself as the nephew of Sharif in the year 2012, retorting that the Broadsheet did not negotiate with crooks.

The Sharif family has assets not only in the United Kingdom (UK) but across the globe, he said, adding that the Sharif family required plenty of explanation about their resources of amassing these assets.

He said the process of accountability was continuing but after President Pervez Musharraf left office, his successors started hampering the process by not giving the access to information and termination of Broadsheet's contract.

To a question, he severely criticised Sharif for claiming that Broadsheet had exonerated the Sharifs.

“Indeed, Broadsheet did exactly the opposite,” he said, adding that it was a complete lie that Broadsheet exonerated the Sharif family.

Broadsheet did not pursue Avenfield apartments source of buying as a Pakistani accountability court had already contended that the apartments were bought by the Sharifs from stolen money.

However, the Broadsheet was ready to investigate money sources of the Avenfield apartments, “if asked by the government of Pakistan”, he said.

Sharif was behind termination of the contract with Broadsheet, which was investigating how hundreds of millions of dollars had been stolen from Pakistan and stashed abroad, Moussavi said.

He said Gen Musharraf tasked Broadsheet with detecting the assets of 200 people. But, after his tenure, the National Accountability Bureau started asking to remove names of certain people from the list that was refused. This was the hypocrisy of then government of Pakistan, he said. APP