Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Saturday said that the Assets Recovery Unit was referring the case of a new London property belonging to the Sharif family to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

While bringing attention to a property that he said "had been revealed by the media", Akbar — in a press conference alongside Adviser to PM Iftikhar Durrani — said that investigative journalists were his closest partners in the responsibility he had been given.

He said that a media channel had broken the news of a property [Frederick Close] located in Central London which "had a current value of 2.2 or 2.3 million pounds".

Akbar added that the rental income and ownership documents for this property from 2012 to 2016 had been available "but were put away in files".

According to these documents, the flat in London was under the name of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the late wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The special assistant to PM said that as the premier and a member of the National Assembly (MNA), it was Nawaz Sharif's responsibility to declare the ownership of his dependents, including his wife's.

He said that this declaration could have been made in two ways; on a wealth statement that every citizen is required to submit while declaring his/her spouse's assets — or as a member of the parliament in the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) forms.

Akbar added that as an MNA, there is also an annual declaration submitted in the assembly.

While holding up a document of the ECP forms and wealth statement, Akbar said that this property had not been shared anywhere and this made it a new case of assets beyond known income.

He said that further investigation of assets beyond known income should be carried out by NAB while tax related liability has been given to the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR).

While saying that the case will be pursued by both [NAB and FBR], Akbar added that they have also asked Britain for fresh ownership documents of the concerned property.

Akbar said that according to the land registry, in August 2016 this property was transferred to Hassan Nawaz's name.

The latest date for its sale is from March 2018, Akbar added.

"We have asked Britain for all these documents and they might come in a week or two. We will put all of that in front of you, what the whole trail of this was — till when this property was under the Sharif family and when they sold it and for how much."

"The question comes up again which has remained the question in all the cases: where did these properties come from, what was their source of income, and what is their trail of money.

"When you don't declare something and get caught, the first question is where did it come from, you have to declare a source of income for it," he remarked.

He also spoke about the alleged misuse of the Prime Minister's plane, saying three hundred forty million rupees were illegally spent on air travels. He said Sharif's daughter, Maryam Nawaz, used the Prime Minister's aircraft illegally while former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif spent Rs600 million on air travel.

In July this year, an accountability court in its verdict in the Avenfield properties corruption reference had handed the ousted prime minister 10 years as jail time for owning assets beyond known income and his daughter Maryam was given 7 years for abetment after she was found "instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father". Sharif's son-in-law retired Captain Safdar was given 1 year jail time.

NAB had filed the reference regarding the high-end properties in London, along with two others, on the Supreme Court's directives in the landmark Panamagate verdict last year which deseated Nawaz as the prime minister.

PML-N's rebuttal

Responding to Akbar's assertions, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb contended that if the government — which she said is reliant on "operating under lies and U-turns" — would examine the facts before levelling further accusations, "it would not need to make U-turns".

Defending Shahbaz's use of helicopters, she said that the former Punjab chief minister had only ever resorted to helicopter use "to fulfil his responsibilities in service to the people" and that it was his "rightful claim and well within the ambit of law to do so".

She said that the Civil Aviation Authority had declared the Punjab government aircraft unfit for use and despite his position, Shahbaz had refused to purchase a new helicopter worth Rs4 billion. The PML-N president "with disregard to his life" continued to use the faulty copter, which was later destoryed in a crash.

Aurangzeb said the helicopter facility was provided by the federal government whenever needed and rent for its use was paid each time.

She claimed that not even a penny was taken from the Punjab government for this purpose "for which no record is available in the logbooks".

She said that the prime minister should answer for his own use of the helicopter instead of blaming others for its unlawful use adding that unlike the PM, Shahbaz had never taken a helicopter "for tours and recreation".