Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Monday said that former prime minister had been acquitted by an accountability court in the Flagship Investment corruption case only on technical grounds.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad hours after accountability court sentenced Sharif to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia corruption case, the information minister said the court acquitted the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid in the other corruption reference because his sons were yet to appear before the court.
“[Sharif’s] children proved to be so unworthy that they did not even appear [in court] for their father’s defense,” Chaudhry told reporters. “Nawaz cannot be arrested until Hasan Nawaz is sentenced.”
“The children of a three-time prime minister have taken the position that they are not Pakistani citizens,” he added. The information minister congratulated the nation for the recent accountability court’s verdict against Nawaz. “Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s birthday is coming in a day. Jinnah has always spoken against financial malpractices,” he said. “Today mafias are being unveiled.”
Chaudhry called the accountability court’s decision, ‘historic’.
“In 1992 a law was made that the source of money won’t be asked for the funds coming from abroad, but according to the NAB law section 9 its mandatory to prove the source of income,” he said. Chaudhry said that Nawaz failed to give money trail to the parliament or before the court of law. “Fake companies were made for money laundering,” he added.
Published in Daily Times, December 25th 2018.