ISLAMABAD July 2: The National Accountability Bureau said on Monday that cases against PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had not been closed and that a committee had been formed to look into fresh reference filed against him in April this year by then Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
A statement issued by NAB Chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari soon after a meeting with senior officials of the bureau, said: “Proceedings on cases against Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif are under process as per provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.”
But the statement contradicts what the NAB chief had said at his last news conference. He had claimed that no case was being investigated against any politician, including the Sharif brothers.
At that news conference, Admiral (retd) Bokhari said that President Asif Ali Zardrai had instructed him not to reopen politically-motivated cases. “President Zardari asked me not to use NAB as a tool against politicians or for political victimisation,” he said.
In his statement on Monday, the NAB chairman said that a committee had been formed under the chairmanship of NAB’s Prosecutor General of Accountability to review the reference forwarded through the National Crisis Management Cell of the ministry of interior.
“The committee is at its final stage to formulate recommendations in the said case. These recommendations will then be presented in the Executive Board Meeting for further proceedings in the case,” he said.
And NAB’s spokesperson said that three references — wilful loan default, Hudaibia Paper Mills and assets beyond known sources of income — were pending in the accountability court.
Ayesha Siddiqa, the head of NAB’s media team, said the bureau had filed an application for reopening the cases but the court refused to accept its point of view and adjourned the cases sine die. In 2010, NAB again moved an application for recommencement of these cases but its plea was rejected by the court. In October 2011, the Sharif brothers filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court, seeking quashment of the references and the court issued a stay order in their favour.
In the three cases already tried in accountability courts, the Sharif brothers were accused of defaulting on Rs4.9 billion loans obtained from nine different banks in 1994-95.
In January, the Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the Lahore High Court and directed NAB to release all assets of the Sharif family. The bench dismissed an appeal of NAB’s Prosecutor General K.K. Agha seeking leave against the Lahore High Court’s Oct 4, 2011, judgment and directed NAB authorities to return Rs115 million and properties of M/S Hudabiya Paper Mills Limited, lying with the National Bank of Pakistan in Islamabad.
NAB’s Prosecutor General KK Agha had informed the Supreme Court that before leaving for Saudi Arabia in Dec 2002, Nawaz Sharif had consented to return the money to NAB under an agreement.
Besides these three cases, Mr Rehman Malik on April 28 accused the Sharif family of robbing 31 banks, development financial institutions (DFIs) and non-banking financial institutions of over Rs6 billion to build their industrial empire.
Leaders of the opposition party were accused of illegally extracting the money for 19 industrial units owned by the family from banks and DFIs which were forced to make the payment.
They were also accused of defaulting on payment of $32 million for paper manufacturing machinery leased from the UK-based Altowfeek company for investment funds limited in February 1995.