ISLAMABAD, May 25: As Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif is set to become the prime minister of Pakistan, the prosecution in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is ready to take him to an accountability court in Rawalpindi in connection with three corruption references.

The Rawalpindi bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) on December 3, 2012, reserved judgment on petitions of the Sharif family seeking quashment of the corruption references - Ittefaq foundries, the Raiwind assets and Hudaibia paper mills - which have been pending in the accountability court since 2000.

Mr Sharif and his family sought the quashment of the references when NAB initiated a process to resume their trial in the accountability court. But the LHC on October 18, 2011, restrained the accountability court from proceeding against the family till final adjudication of the matter.

The restraining order is still effective even after a lapse of 20 months and the accountability court on a number of occasions since October 2011 has adjourned the hearing of the NAB application for the revival of the references.

After the Supreme Court judgment of December 16, 2009, in which it declared the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) void ab initio and ordered NAB to revive corruption references, the NAB prosecution in 2010 filed an application with the accountability court for reopening of the references against the Sharifs.

But it was deferred because the application was not signed by the NAB chairman due to his unavailability.

On April 4, 2001, after the Sharifs were exiled to Saudi Arabia, the proceeding on the references was adjourned indefinitely. On August 8, 2007, NAB filed an application for the revival of these references soon after Nawaz Sharif announced his decision to return to Pakistan for contesting the 2008 elections.

But the court did not proceed with the matter which was again adjourned sine die in August 2008 as it was not routed through the NAB chairman.

The LHC in October 2011 took up the matter and concluded the proceedings in December last year.

In April this year, the LHC division bench, comprising Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmad and Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan, differed on the point whether there was no necessity or requirement to give observations that NAB authorities were competent to proceed against the petitioners if an investigation was initiated again.

The matter was then referred to LHC Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial by the senior judge Khawaj Imtiaz Ahmed and the CJ nominated Justice Sheikh Najamul Hassan as a referee judge on April 9 to decide the petitions.

Justice Hassan, however, excused himself from proceeding in the matter on the ground that he was once associated with the chamber of Khawaja Haris Ahmed, the main counsel for Nawaz Sharif in the corruption references, and referred the case again to the LHC chief justice on April 30.

Sources in the NAB prosecution said the bureau was ready to initiate proceedings against Nawaz Sharif in case the referee judge dismissed his plea to quash the references.

“If the LHC orders to quash the references the bureau can file an appeal with the Supreme Court or simply drop the references.”

They said during the former government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), NAB and other investigation agencies probed the corruption allegations against then prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and also booked sitting federal ministers in different corruption cases.

“Nawaz Sharif will face the same treatment unless the court quashes the references,” they added.

When contacted, NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid did not comment on the matter.

Khawaja Haris Ahmed, one of the Sharif family’s lawyers, told Dawn that the references were based on fake allegations against Nawaz Sharif and his family members.

He said the allegations cannot disqualify any person from holding a public office. “Unless convicted by a competent court of law, Main Nawaz Sharif is eligible to become the prime minister,” he added.

As per the 11-volume report of NAB in the Hudaibia paper mill reference, the Sharif family allegedly deposited ill-gotten money in the accounts opened in other people’s names and used it to pay off loans of the “Sharif companies.”

The investigation report prepared by a NAB investigation officer contains the statement of former finance minister Ishaq Dar who in the year 2000 had turned approver against Sharifs.

According to the allegations against the Sharifs in the Raiwind assets reference, the accused persons had acquired vast tracts of land on which a number of palatial houses and mansions were constructed with pecuniary resources which appeared to be grossly disproportionate to their known sources of income.

According to Ittefaq Foundaries reference, Sharifs were facing charges of willful default on Rs3.8 billion to the banks. NAB claimed that the total receivable amount of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) from the Sharif family by December 2011 was Rs2.31 billion, Habib Bank Rs336 million, United Bank Rs343 million, Muslim Commercial Bank Rs456.1 million, First Punjab Modarba Rs202 million, Bank of Punjab Rs95 million, ZTBL Rs60 million, NIB (formerly PICIC) Rs27 million and ICBP Rs8 million.