LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday extended physical remand of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif till Oct 20 in assets beyond means and money-laundering reference.
Shahbaz was produced before the court from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) lock-up, while co-accused Hamza Shahbaz was brought there from jail. As the hearing commenced, the NAB prosecutor implored the court to extend the physical remand of Shahbaz Sharif for 15 days.
The prosecutor argued that during the course of investigation, a questionnaire was handed over to Shahbaz, but he did not fill that. The prosecutor alleged that in 2011, Shahbaz received Rs200 million from Bahria Town and his son Suleman Shahbaz returned his foreign loans, but he was not responding to questions about these matters. The prosecutor asked the court to extend physical remand of the accused for confronting him with those financial statements.
However, Advocate Amjad Parvez, counsel for Shahbaz Sharif, argued that his client had already furnished information about the loans, obtained by him from private persons and banks in his tax returns.
The counsel said NAB was asking Shahbaz to show receipts of the gifts. What receipt could be shown if a gift was given to his client by his son-in-law, Amjad argued. The counsel said his client had been asked to provide details of gifts worth mere Rs20,000, which he received 12 years back. However, the counsel added, the means of income of the persons have been provided, who gave gifts to his client.
The counsel argued that the reference had been filed and its copies had also been provided to the nominated persons. In such circumstance, NAB’s plea for further physical remand was illogical, added the counsel.
Meanwhile, Shahbaz Sharif told the court that in 2004, he returned to Pakistan after having a cancer treatment from the USA, knowing the fact that dictator Musharraf would not allow him to stay in the country.
“From Pakistan, I was sent to Saudi Arabia and from there to the UK,” Shahbaz said adding that had he not run a business in the UK, he would have become a beggar of the Queen of England. My family and I had not obtained any loan worth a single penny from the Punjab Bank,” Shahbaz added.
The PML-N president claimed that he himself had barred the Bank of Punjab to not give loans to his relatives. After listening to Shahbaz, the accountability court judge Jawadul Hassan asked NAB prosecutor as to how many times he [Shahbaz] appeared before the inquiry team. The prosecutor replied that Shahbaz appeared before the inquiry team for four times. Then the judge remarked that why NAB was seeking further physical remand when it had got answers to the basic questions. The judge said if the accused did not provide further information, who would be at loss?
To which, prosecutor replied that the situation would harm the accused. Then why you are asking for more remand, the judge said. The accused is required to confront with financial statements, the prosecutor responded.
Meanwhile, Amjad Parvez moved an application on behalf of Shahbaz Sharif’s wife Nusrat Shahbaz, seeking exemption from personal appearance. Previously, the court had asked Nusrat to appear before the court. Nusrat implored the court to grant her exemption on medical grounds. The judge asked Amjad Parvez about the status of Rabia Imran, to which he replied that he had not received her Vakalatnama and he did not know about her status.
Later, the court directed NAB to submit complete investigation report till Oct 20. The court also gave another chance to Haroon Yousaf, Ali Ahmad and Tahir Naqvi to appear before the court. In the reference, NAB had claimed that in the last 30 years, the Shahbaz family assets swelled from Rs2 million to Rs7,000 million that the family failed to justify.
NAB alleged that Shahbaz, in connivance with his co-accused family members, Benamidars, front men, close associates, employees and moneychangers, developed an organised system of money-laundering for accumulation of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs7,328 million.
NAB nominated Shahbaz, his wife Nusrat Shahbaz, sons Hamza Shahbaz, Suleman Shahbaz, daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali in the reference. Suleman Shahbaz is a proclaimed offender in this case.
The other nominated accused include Nisar Ahmad, Syed Muhammad Tahir Naqvi, Ali Muhammad Khan, Qasim Qayyum, Rashid Karamat, Masroor Anwer, Muhammad Usman, Fazal Dad Abbasi, Muhammad Shoaib Qamar and Haroon Yousafzai.
NAB also accepted requests from four people for becoming approvers against Shahbaz family in the reference including Muhammad Mushtaq alias Mushtaq Cheeni, his son Yasir Mushtaq, Shahid Rafique and Aftab Ahmad. It has been learnt that the reference consists of 25,000 pages and 55 volumes.
In June 2019, Muhammad Mushtaq alias Cheeni and his son Yasir Mushtaq, alleged front men for the Shahbaz family, while recording their statements before the court, confessed that they facilitated Suleman Shahbaz in whitening his Rs600 million black money through fake loan agreements and engineered telegraphic transfers (TTs).
