Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Following Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case, the Executive Board of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday decided to file four references against the Sharif family and former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

A meeting of the NAB Executive Board was held at its headquarters wherein it was decided that the references against Nawaz Sharif, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz, Maryam Nawaz, Capt (retd) Safdar and Ishaq Dar would be filed in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi accountability courts within six weeks of the top court’s judgment.

NAB Director General (DG) of Balochistan, who has also been part of the six-member joint investigation team (JIT) constituted by the Supreme Court to investigate Sharif family’s offshore businesses, Irfan Naeem Mangi was tasked to file the references against the Sharif family.

The first reference is related to properties owned by Nawaz Sharif’s children including the Avenfield Properties (Flat No 16 and 16-A, 17 and 17-A Avenfield House, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom).

The second reference pertains to establishment of the Azizia Steel Company and the Hill Metal Company.

The third one is related to the companies mentioned in paragraph 9 of the judgment (Flagship Investments Limited, Hartstone Properties Limited, Que Holdings Limited; Quint Eaton Place 2 Limited, Quint Saloane Limited (formerly Quint Eaton Place Limited), Quaint Limited, Flagship Securities Limited, Quint Gloucester Place Limited, Quint Paddington Limited (formerly Rivates Estates Limited), Flagship Developments Limited, Alanna Services Limited (BVI), Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron Inc, Ansbacher Inc, Coomber Inc and Capital FZE (Dubai).

The fourth reference pertains to Respondent No 10 (Ishaq Dar) for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.

The Supreme Court on July 28 had disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Panamagate case and ordered a probe into his and his family’s offshore assets.

The NAB in the meeting of its Executive Board has decided that the references would be prepared on the basis of the material collected by the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the Sharif family’s offshore assets.

“Some other material may also be used including that available with the Federal Investigation Agency and NAB having nexus with the assets in the mentioned cases or which might subsequently become available including material that may become available in pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance requests sent by JIT to different jurisdictions,” the meeting decided.

The officers concerned have been directed to efficiently and professionally handle the entire process in the laid down time limit, the NAB said in a statement issued after the meeting.

The participants of the meeting were also given a briefing by the bureau’s prosecution wing. Deputy chairperson of the bureau, deputy prosecutor general, director general operations and director general of NAB Rawalpindi attended the meeting.

Published in Daily Times, August 1^st , 2017.