A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Wednesday sought details of bank accounts operated by the Sharif family at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Prime Minister’s Secretariat Branch, Islamabad. The bench was hearing seven appeals of the Sharif family challenging confiscation of their properties, bank accounts and shares of their industrial units by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The bench also directed NAB to inform about the law under which it had transferred money from bank accounts of the appellants to the federal government.
The bench also adjourned the hearing until September 27. Earlier, NAB presented seized documents of companies of the Sharif family and the court preserved the record in presence of representative of the appellants. The Sharifs submitted that NAB was not releasing their properties, which it had seized in 2001 to recover the fine imposed on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif by an accountability court and anti-terrorism court in the plane hijacking and purchase of a Russian helicopter cases respectively. It was pleaded that the conviction in both cases was set aside by the Supreme Court but despite repeated applications, NAB was not releasing the seized properties and resorted to coercive measures against them.
The appellants argued that it was unlawful on the part of NAB to recover the fines imposed on Nawaz from other members of his family. The appeals were filed by Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif and Abbas Sharif’s daughter Sabina Abbas for recovery of papers of the Hudabiya Paper Mills, Hudabiya Engineering Services, Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Ramzan Sugar Mills and Hamza Spinning Mills and the said companies’ shares from custody of NAB.
