LAHORE: Taking exception to Maryam Nawaz’s tirade against it, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has alleged that the PML-N vice president is trying to “influence” the corruption and money laundering probe against the Sharif family through her “seditious” statements.

The anti-graft body on Tuesday seriously deliberated on summoning Ms Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills and money laundering investigation this month, a source told Dawn.

The PML-N leader is on bail in the same case and has been issued a notice by the Lahore High Court for April 7 on NAB’s petition seeking cancellation of the post-arrest bail granted in November 2019.

The NAB Lahore on Tuesday issued a statement in response to Ms Nawaz’s frontal attack on it. A day before, she had questioned its jurisdiction to judge her political statements, demanding registration of a case against the bureau for transgressing its mandate. She had also taken the NAB to task for, what she said, filing a frivolous petition in the high court to get her bail cancelled.

The bureau said: “Maryam Nawaz tried to create an environment of chaos in the country when she was summoned (in this case). She also continues issuing seditious statements targeting NAB, judiciary and law enforcement agencies. And her prime purpose of doing so [is] to influence and create hurdles in the investigation related to corruption and money laundering against the Sharif family. Besides, she is also trying to create a law and order situation in the country.”

It also alleged that Ms Nawaz was running away from the investigation against her and trying to pitch state institutions against each other. To support its claim, it cited the example of her causing violence, pelting stones at the NAB building and challenging the security forces in August last year during her appearance before the bureau.

The bureau also justified not re-summoning her after that episode, saying that keeping national interest in view and her political engagements it had decided not to call her for a certain period. But she misused that relaxation and tried to make a mockery of the court’s decisions.

“Maryam Nawaz has been trying to give a political colour to the investigation against her,” it said and reiterated that it had no association with any political party and its prime purpose was to take all mega corruption cases to their logical end. “The NAB sticks to its policy of accountability for all,” it reiterated.

According to the bureau, Ms Nawaz is the major beneficiary in the sugar mills case. The mills record available with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan reveals that its 9.4 million shares were issued in the name of Saif Bin Jabr Al Suwaidi, chairman of the Bin Jabr Group of the UAE. Mr Suwaidi had been appearing as a majority shareholder in the sugar mills from 1999 to 2008, valued at Rs310m in Oct 1999.

“Later, in May 2008, the aforesaid shares were transferred to Maryam Nawaz (accused) without any payment. The management of CSM claimed that Mr Suwaidi sent an amount of $6 million to its bank account in Lahore for the purchase of 9.4m shares,” it said.

The bureau has been probing whether the $6m belonged to Mr Suwaidi as his investment in the form of purchase of shares or the amount actually belonged to Nawaz Sharif or his family members and he (Suwaidi) repatriated their amount back to them.

In 2018, the government’s financial monitoring unit reported to the NAB “a huge suspicious” transaction involving billions of rupees in the M/s Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd under the Anti-Money Laundering Act. The bureau detected that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif and the family of late Abbas Sharif are shareholders in the company along with some foreigners of the UAE and the UK.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2021