NAB investigation: LHC reserves verdict in Sharif family cases

Lawyers say references pending for 12 years.

RAWALPINDI:

The Lahore High Court on Monday reserved its verdict on three identical petitions seeking for the quashing of corruption references pending adjudication since 2000 against PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family.

The corruption references relate to the Hudaibya Paper Mills, Ittefaq Foundries and Raiwind assets.

Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed and Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan of LHC’s Rawalpindi bench reserved its judgment after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor Chaudhry Riaz Ahmed completed his arguments against the petitions.

In his arguments, Ahmed maintained that a decision on the corruption references could only be made by the concerned trial court after appreciating the evidence available on record and hearing the arguments of the accused as well. He urged LHC to set aside the plea for cancelling the references.

The prosecutor argued that there was sufficient material available on a detailed investigation report prepared by NAB, including the statement of Senator Ishaq Dar as the approver.

Ahmed said that Nawaz and his family had allegedly committed money laundering worth Rs1.242 billion.

Quoting Ishaq Dar’s statement, Ahmed said several bogus bank accounts were opened on the instructions of Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, depositing the laundered money and later transferring the money into personal accounts.

He told the LHC that there were statements of four people who had denied opening any accounts and claimed they were made tools to transfer the money. He said the investigation has a record of all bank transactions made by the account holders.



Ahmed maintained that NAB had completed its investigation on time and submitted its findings to the court for further proceedings. He said the 12-year delay was not caused by NAB, rather the matter remained pending in the absence of Nawaz and Shahbaz from the country and the NAB duly approached the court for a resumption of the references in 2007, 2010 and 2012.

Finally, the prosecutor said the accused never joined the investigation as they remained out of the country and they could now get their statements recorded with NAB.

Representing the Sharif family in the case, lawyers Salman Butt and Khawja Haris Ahmed argued that there was no evidence against the family and the references had been pending without any proceedings for last 12 years. Thus, the inordinate delay on part of the prosecution was enough to quash the references.

In its references, NAB accused the Sharifs of allegedly committing Rs642.743 million worth of corruption in the Hudaibya Paper Mills case.

In the Ittefaq Foundries reference, they were accused of securing huge loans and allegedly misappropriating them, causing millions of rupees of losses to the national exchequer.

Similarly, in the Raiwind assets case, the Sharifs were charged with accumulating large sums of money and assets beyond their declared means of income by allegedly misusing their authority.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2012