ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday approached the Supreme Court to seek overturning of the Feb 18 order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) for the release of Yousaf Abbas Sharif, a nephew of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on a post-arrest bail.
The appeal was filed on behalf of NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal, with a request to set aside the Feb 18 order and consequently cancel in the interest of justice the post-arrest bail allowed to Yousaf Abbas, who is facing the allegation of money laundering.
Tracing the history, the appeal recalled that the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) had on Jan 12, 2018 forwarded a suspicious transaction report (STR) to the NAB chairman about different suspicious transactions of huge volumes in the accounts of Messrs Chaudhary Sugar Mills Limited (CSML), accused Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Yousaf Abbas, and different employees.
Consequently, an inquiry was initiated on the allegation of commission of offences of corruption and corrupt practices and money laundering.
Accuses Yousaf Abbas of laundering unexplained funds of ex-PM
NAB claimed in the appeal that the evidence collected so far had revealed that the former prime minister had allegedly accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income in the form of investment of Rs2 billion in CSML and also in the form of establishment of a new mill called Messrs Shamim Sugar Mills (SSML) worth Rs1.2bn and that Yousaf Abbas, being a close relative of him, allegedly laundered, assisted and abetted the unexplained funds of the former prime minister.
NAB alleged that STR or currency transaction report (CTR) was carried out in 44 bank accounts of CSML. The anti-graft watchdog said Yousuf Abbas was appointed director of CSML in 2006. He also served as chief executive officer of the sugar mill in 2007.
The petition regretted that the high court, while granting the post-arrest bail, had also mentioned in its order that the accused [Yousaf Abbas] never withdrew any amount from the account of CSML, but the record revealed that Rs1.33bn was transferred from the account of the sugar mill to his present account — a fact never appreciated by the high court.
This had resulted in a grave miscarriage of justice which had also prejudiced the case of the prosecution, the appeal argued.
It alleged that when released on bail, the accused, being an influential person, might harass the witnesses, tamper with the prosecution evidence or abscond to hamper the proceedings against him. “Such facts are strengthened by the fact as the co-accused, Maryam Nawaz, and his other family members tried to flee abroad,” the petition alleged.
The appeal argued that the accused had miserably failed to establish that his involvement in the case called for further probe, rather he was fully implicated in the commission of offence by the evidence on record and thus, prima facie, he was connected with the alleged crime.
But, the appeal said, the high court had overlooked the vital aspects of the case which, prima facie, emphatically established the alleged involvement of the accused in the offence and thus required to be sifted during the trial proceedings. The high court order was not tenable in the eyes of the law and, therefore, liable to be dismissed, it argued.
The high court was apprised during the hearing that the present case was a clear example of white-collar crime, the appeal said, requesting the Supreme Court to dismiss the high court’s order for being based on surmises and conjectures.
The appeal argued that the post-arrest bail was granted to the accused by the high court on erroneous, perverse and factually incorrect basis without assigning lawful reasons while misconstruing the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2020