LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says his family has decided to take Younus Habib to court for allegations levelled by him in the Mehran Bank scandal.
Addressing a press conference at his residence on Wednesday, he said Younus Habib’s allegations of having paid Rs2.5 million to him and Rs3.5 million to Nawaz Sharif in the early 1990s were a pack of lies. He said a defamation suit would be filed and a panel of lawyers had been formed to prepare the case.
Mr Sharif accused some elements of using Mr Habib to cover up their own corruption and bluntly told them that the ‘malicious’ campaign would neither deter the PML-N leadership from exposing their loot nor stop it from demanding implementation of the court’s NRO verdict.
He said Mr Habib should either present evidence of telegraphic transfer (TT) of money or face legal action.
He also termed Asif Jamshed, who allegedly received the TT as stated by Mr Habib in his changed statement, a fraud, who had embezzled $8 millions from Habib Bank, but the PPP government posted him as managing director of Punjab Bank in 1994.
Mr Jamshed fled to New York when the PML-N returned to power and fired him in 1997.
He said the Supreme Court should take notice of the doling out of Rs1.43 billion to various politicians by Mr Habib, recover the money and penalise the beneficiaries.
Responding to a question, the chief minister said his family had obtained a loan of Rs48 million from Mehran Bank in 1992 and paid back Rs102.1 million, including the principal amount and mark-up.
Criticising the role of secret agencies in distribution of money among politicians, he said the practice affected promotion of democracy, weakened institutions and the rule of law.
Mr Sharif said he was personally aware that Rs500 million had been drawn by the ‘IG of liars’ (apparently alluding to Interior Minister Rehman Malik) during governor’s rule in Punjab in 2009. The money, he alleged, had been used through the IB (Intelligence Bureau) to win loyalties of MPAs against the PML-N.
He said if the apex court summoned him, he would reveal on oath the dirty role played by some men from Islamabad in this respect.
Mr Sharif recalled that it was PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif who had raised the Mehran Bank issue in the 1990s and led a convoy of opposition members and journalists to D. G. Khan for showing the Razi Farm allegedly purchased with the money illegally taken from the bank.