NAB seeks to auction Nawaz’s assets

Moves a 2-page application in Islamabad Accountability Court-II

LAHORE:

The country’s top graft buster has started the process of auctioning all the properties of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his dependents and has requested an accountability court to issue directions to the concerned authorities in this regard.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has moved a two-page application in Islamabad Accountability Court-II in connection with a gift repository – Toshakhana – case.

While hearing the case, the same court in September last year declared Nawaz a proclaimed offender after the PML-N supreme leader failed to appear before the court despite repeated summonses.

The court had also initiated the process to confiscate Nawaz’s properties and directed NAB to arrest the three-time former prime minister with the help of Interpol.

According to the application, Nawaz has willfully and knowingly not surrendered to the court.

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“Therefore, the attached properties against which no objection/claims have been preferred before the court are required to be sold out as per prescribed procedure,” it said.

Providing details of the properties assets, NAB said Nawaz Sharif owns 467,950 shares in Muhammad Bakskh Textile Mill, 343,425 shares in Hudabiya Paper Mills, 22,213 shares in Hudabiya Engineering Company and 48,606 shares in Ittefaq Textile Mills.

He has eight accounts in various private banks, including three foreign currency accounts. Nawaz Sharif has Rs612,000 in his five local bank accounts. In his three foreign currency accounts, Nawaz has €566, $698 and £498 respectively.

According to the report, Nawaz owns a bungalow in Murree, a 15 kanal house in Changla Gali, Abbottabad and property in Upper Mall Lahore.

He and his dependents own more than 1,752 kanals of agricultural lands which include 936 kanal in Mouza Manak in Lahore, 299 kanal in Mouza Baduksani, 103 kanal in Mouza Mall Raiwind in Lahore, 312 kanal in Mouza Sultan, 14 kanal in Sheikhupura district and 88 kanal in Mouza Ferozwatan.

According to the Excise and Taxation Office of Lahore and Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif also owns three luxury vehicles and two harvesting vehicles.

The PML-N supreme leader has been in London since November 2019 when the PTI government gave him a rare permission to fly abroad to get medical treatment for a debilitating health condition.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on December 2, 2020 also declared Nawaz Sharif a proclaimed offender after he ignored all summonses and proclamations of the bench that was originally formed to hear appeals against his conviction in two graft cases.

The IHC division bench – comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani – had also issued show cause notices to the people who had acted as guarantors when the same court had granted bail to Sharif in Avenfield and Al-Azizia references.