ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Tuesday sought reply from the National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) on an application of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, seeking his acquittal in a reference related to Toshakhana vehicles.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana of the accountability court asked NAB’s prosecution to submit reply by May 23.

The judge was hearing the reference against President Asif Ali Zardari and supreme leader of the ruling PML-N Nawaz Sharif for allegedly obtaining luxury vehicles from Toshakhana by paying only 15 per cent of their prices.

NAB alleged that ex-PM and incumbent chairman Senate Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani facilitated the allotment of the vehicles to them by ‘dishonestly’ and ‘illegally’ relaxing the procedure for the acceptance and disposal of gifts vide a cabinet division memorandum of 2007.

The National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) in a report submitted to the court last month virtually cleared Mr Sharif in the Toshakhana vehicle reference. The prosecution contended in the report that the vehicle concerned was gifted to then-PM Nawaz by the government of Saudi Arabia and was deposited in the Tosha­khana. The report stated that the car sold out to Mr Sharif was included in the federal transport pool. In 2008, then PM Gilani had offered Nawaz to buy the car, at which the latter did so from the federal transport pool and not the Toshakhana, the NAB report said.

“This case may attract any other offence but it has no relevancy with the benefit of Toshakhana as the subject vehicle when purchased was not part of Toshakhana, rather than the same was part of the federal transport pool,” it said.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2024