Daily Times

LAHORE: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) President Saeed Ahmed and Javed Kayani, a friend of Nawaz Sharif, appeared before a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigation team on Monday to record their statements in the ongoing references against Ishaq Dar’s assets and the Sharifs’ Avenfield properties in London, a private TV channel reported.

NAB also offered to make Ahmed and Kayani approvers against the Sharifs and Dar during the meeting, bureau sources privy to the matter said. The two are yet to accept NAB’s offer.

The decision was taken in order to ease the process of filing references and undertaking convictions, sources claimed, adding that NAB, in return, would not take any action against Ahmed and Kayani.

A team headed by Lahore NAB DG is carrying out the investigation, sources said.

Ahmed had been summoned by the JIT due to his involvement in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, which the JIT was examining as part of its probe into the Sharifs murky business dealings abroad.

Ahmed’s name had come into the national limelight when, after the Musharraf coup in 1998, current Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had declared him a “close friend” and claimed that Ahmed’s accounts had been used to ‘handle’ the Sharif family’s finances.

Earlier, Ahmed had informed the JIT that he had no knowledge of any account in his name linked with money laundering.

Published in Daily Times, August 22^nd 2017.