ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday resubmitted two references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his children to an accountability court.

The references were returned by the accountability court on Tuesday.

The accountability court registrar received the references, but he linked their acceptance to scrutiny of the objections he had raised earlier.

A reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will be resubmitted on Thursday as it could not be filed because the discussion between the court and NAB officials continued till closing of office hours on Wednesday.

Now three references have been filed by the NAB under the Panama Papers scandal on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Three references accepted on Wednesday were related to Avenfield Properties in London, Azizia Steel Mills/Hill Metal Company in Jeddah against Nawaz Sharif, his sons Hassan and Hussain and daughter Maryam.

NAB had filed four references on Friday, but they were returned by the accountability court registrar for being incomplete. He accepted one reference related to flagship properties on Tuesday.

The NAB spokesman said: “The references regarding Al Azizia Steel Mills/Hill Metal Company (Jeddah) and Avenfield Properties London have been received by the registrar and issued receipts to NAB.”

He said the reference against Ishaq Dar would be filed again on Thursday morning as all objections against it had been removed.

The accountability court registrar wrote on the receipt given to the NAB: “Today at 3:30pm investigation officer of the case Mehboob Alam Chishti resubmitted the references after removing objections. References received subject to scrutiny of the objections raised by the officer on 13-09-2017.”

NAB submitted four interim references to the accountability court on Friday but the registrar had raised the objection as to why three copies of references were submitted instead of five.

He said when the number of accused was five why three copies of the references were deposited, and directed NAB to submit the remaining two copies of each reference. NAB provided remaining two copies on the same day on Friday after two hours.

NAB submitted interim references to meet the Sept 8 deadline of the Supreme Court with available information and further information will be provided to the court later as supplementary references. But it does not mean that the trial will not start on the references filed on Friday.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2017