Daily Times

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gave a clean chit on Wednesday to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a case related to the acquisition of a luxury vehicle from the Toshakhana (state gift repository).

The watchdog submitted a report to the accountability court affirming the court’s authority to acquit the former premier from the Toshakhana case.

The report submitted today stated that the Supreme Court had passed instructions to investigate an alleged fake account associated with Nawaz, however, it added that the PML-N chief did not utilize funds from the alleged account to pay for the vehicle taken from the Toshakhana.

The report by the country’s graft-buster further clarified that the vehicle was relinquished to Toshakhana in 1997, while in 2008 when Nawaz Sharif bought the car, the vehicle was no longer under the ownership of the Toshakhana.

In a reference filed in March 2020, the country’s accountability watchdog accused that during the term of prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, rules were violated to allow former president Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Nawaz to acquire luxury vehicles from the state’s gift repository.

It alleged that Gilani facilitated Zardari and Nawaz in this regard, claiming that he dishonestly relaxed the government’s gift acceptance procedure in 2007. The procedure stipulated that vehicles presented as gifts by foreign dignitaries shall not be allowed to be purchased by the recipients and be given to the central pool under the care of the cabinet division.

In October 2020, the accountability court declared the PML-N supreme leader an absconder due to his continuous non-appearance in the Toshakhana case and ordered the confiscation of his property. According to the anti-corruption body, Zardari and Nawaz retained the vehicles “against a nominal payment of 15% of their total value” through “dishonest and illegal means for their personal benefit and interest”.