ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Monday said that the Supreme Court judgement in the Panama Papers case would be implemented in letter and spirit.

Talking to reporters after the inauguration of NAB’s new premises for its headquarters on Monday, he said that references against the Sharif family as required by the apex court’s verdict would be filed soon.

Elaborating on what the chairman said, a senior NAB official told Dawn that NAB had decided to file four corruption references against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his children and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar soon after Eidul Azha, as the Supreme Court’s six-week deadline according to the verdict would end soon.

The official said that the apex court had set the NAB a deadline for Sept 11, and the Bureau was expected to file the references in an accountability court in Islamabad in the second week of September.

SC verdict to be implemented in letter and spirit, says the chairman

He said NAB would file references on the basis of statements of Mr Sharif, his sons Hussain and Hassan Nawaz, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, recorded by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). They would also consider the JIT’s report (especially volume-10), and the material received from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The official said that NAB had served three notices on the members of the Sharif family but they had refused to appear before NAB investigators till the apex court announced a decision on their review appeals against the apex court’s verdict.

He said that members of the JIT, who had prepared the report on directives of the Supreme Court, would also be summoned to record their statements before NAB’s combined investigation team.

The official said that the NAB headquarters had been provided a copy of Volume-10 of the JIT report to prepare references in the light of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) with different countries and their replies.

According to the MLA with British authorities, it has been proved that Maryam Nawaz was an owner of the Avenfield properties. Similarly, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government had sent a letter that rejected the Sharifs’ stance on the Gulf Steel Mills and thus nullified the letter from former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, which had been presented to explain the money trail of their off-shore assets, he said.

Earlier while addressing the participants in the inauguration ceremony, the NAB chairman said that the bureau had grown in size and importance, gradually establishing itself as a nationally, and globally recognised anti-corruption agency.

NAB’s staff, he said, had increased by more than four times and the idea of moving into a new headquarters building had been conceived in 2005. He added that the project had faced a number of constraints and delays in the subsequent years due to paucity of funds till 2013. “I must acknowledge the present government for extending its full support to this project,” he said.

“This building will inevitably become known as the public interface of anti-corruption and would provide a sound foundation for the bureau to pursue the mandate of a corruption-free society for our citizens,” he said.

He added that NAB, as an institution, had played a central role in galvanising anti-corruption efforts all over the country by becoming a focal point for people to file their complaints. “We have developed and introduced an online complaint registration system along with dedicated telephone lines for assistance of the general public and [to take down their] complainants, we listen very carefully to all that our citizens are saying,” he added.

Mr Zaman said Pakistan had been consistently improving according to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), but the state and the society would have to work together to rid the nation of the scourge of corruption. “I assure the nation that we will continue our fearless fight against corruption, without any discrimination for or against any one, with honesty and objectivity,” he claimed.

The NAB chief appreciated the efforts of all NAB officials, the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD), and the consultants and contractors who had worked diligently against all odds to complete the project.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2017