LAHORE: An official of the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) on Friday testified before an accountability court as a prosecution witness and maintained that the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, had never been a director of Ramzan Sugar Mills.

Answering several queries of the defence, SECP Additional Registrar Ghulam Mustafa said the record submitted by him before the court did not show that Mr Shehbaz ever held the office of the sugar mills’ director or received any monetary benefit from the accounts of the mills.

At this, Mr Shehbaz, who was present in the court, abruptly said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) wanted to make him director of all the companies in Pakistan. The courtroom echoed with laughter when Presiding Judge Naseem Virk, in a lighter vein, asked Shehbaz whether he would accept the directorship of the companies if offered.

With the judge’s permission, Mr Shehbaz went on to say that all the allegations leveled in the NAB reference had already been declared false in an investigation carried out against him and his family in London by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA). He said the NAB had supplied its whole record to the NCA, but the latter found no criminal activity in his family business.

Mr Shehbaz said he developed assets in London as he was forced to live in exile during the dictatorship of Gen Musharraf.

The judge adjourned further hearing of the money laundering reference till Feb 18 after the defence counsel completed cross examination of the prosecution witness.

The judge directed the prosecution to produce more witnesses on the next date of hearing.

Shehbaz’s son Hamza also appeared before the court.

In its reference, the NAB alleged that the family members and benamidars of Shehbaz received fake foreign remittances of billions in their personal bank accounts. In addition to these remittances, the bureau said, billions of rupees were laundered by way of foreign pay orders, which were deposited in personal bank accounts of the opposition leader’s sons – Hamza and Suleman.

Being out of the country, Mr Shehbaz’s wife Ms Nusrat had been indicted in the case through a pleader with the court’s permission.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2022