Those defending Nawaz Sharif should be ashamed of themselves, says Fawad Chaudhry
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, while addressing a press conference on Monday evening, said the “real face of Nawaz Sharif has been unmasked today", referring to the judgement by an accountability court earlier in the day against the ousted premier in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference.
The court handed a seven-year jail sentence to Nawaz Sharif and ordered him to pay Rs1.5 billion and US $25 million.
Chaudhry was speaking to the media alongside Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar.
The information minister said that the people who are still defending Nawaz Sharif should be ashamed of themselves because the money involved in the scam belongs to the people of Pakistan.
“As per the NAB law, if a person is unable to justify the sources of his earnings then that amount is considered as corruption," he said, adding that Nawaz Sharif was unable to provide money trail for his assets, therefore, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Shahzad Akbar also addressed the press conference and briefed the media persons about the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in the ongoing 'fake' accounts case against former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.
"The JIT should be commended for the way in which it has unearthed the facts," Akbar said.
The premier's assistant said, “The JIT report has revealed the presence of a ‘Zardari system’ functioning across Sindh to facilitate corruption through fake accounts.”
Talking about the contents of the JIT report, Akbar said a separate chapter has been dedicated to Summit Bank which was established to conceal corruption.
The JIT's findings linked the fake bank accounts to Zardari, claiming that the PPP-Parliamentarians president's personal expenses were also paid through the accounts' funds.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court banned the trading and transfers of the properties of the Zardari Group, Bahria Town and Omni Group which are mentioned in a report submitted by the JIT probing the fake bank accounts case.
The report stated that payments for the upkeep of Bilawal House's pets and for 28 sacrificial goats were also made through the said fake bank accounts.
Furthermore, the JIT report claimed that the expenses of the Zardari family's residences in both Karachi and Lahore — commonly known as Bilawal House — were paid through fake bank accounts.
