LAHORE: President of the National Bank of Pakis­tan Saeed Ahmed appeared on Monday before a team of the National Acco­untability Bureau (NAB) probing multiple references against the Sharifs and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

The NAB team interrogated the NBP chief and Sugar Mills Association’s office-bearer Javed Kiani for over six hours reportedly in a case of expensive London properties of the Sharifs and the financial company allegedly used by Mr Dar for transferring large amounts of money abroad.

The finance minister has also been summoned by the team on Tuesday.

Mr Dar, who has filed a petition for review of the July 28 Panama Papers case verdict that directed NAB to submit the references within six weeks, had skipped the previous hearing on Aug 18.

The Sharifs too did not appear twice before the NAB team seized with investigations into Al-Azizia Steel Mills and London properties cases despite summons on Aug 18 and 20.

The family — former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his sons Hussain and Hassan, daughter Maryam and her husband retired Captain Safdar — has taken the plea that as they have filed a petition with the Supreme Court for review of the Panama verdict and they would join the investigation only after adjudication of the petition.

The NAB team led by director-general retired Maj Shahzad Salim investigated Mr Dar in the case of owning assets beyond his known sources of income.

The Bureau had already sent a questionnaire containing 35 questions to the finance minister asking him to appear along with relevant documents regarding these queries.

Earlier, before the Supreme Court-appointed Joint Investigation Team (JIT), NBP chief Saeed Ahmed had denied having any knowledge of bank accounts pertaining to alleged money-laundering by Mr Dar on behalf of the Sharifs.

Mr Dar had told the JIT that Mr Ahmed was running a nursing home in London before he was appointed as deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017