- Officials say record to be collected from Lahore, Rawalpindi to prepare a reference
The future role of Sharif family in country’s political arena is likely to be decided till March 2018 as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been taking necessary measures to file a reference with the accountability court in the given timeframe.
In its final decision on the Panama Papers case, the Supreme Court has set a deadline for NAB to file a reference against the Sharif family in the accountability court. At the same time, the court has fixed a time period for the accountability court to give its judgment on the reference to be filed by the bureau.
In this way, unnecessary delay in the case and taking clean chit from NAB in corruption cases has become next to impossible, while a verdict to give end to the future of Sharif family in politics or some partial relief is likely by March 2018 also before the holding of upcoming general elections of 2018.
On anonymity, NAB officials said that a consultative meeting was held here in the NAB headquarters on Saturday to discuss and adopt necessary measures following a court decision against the Sharif family. They said that the meeting has decided to collect record from Lahore and Rawalpindi bureaus of the NAB about the cases of the Sharif family for preparing a reference.
The accountability court is expected to give its final judgment till March 2018 if the NAB chairman does not create obstacles in this regard. It is also learnt that NAB offices in Rawalpindi and Lahore have initiated necessary preparations regarding filing of the reference against the former prime minister and all those who were allegedly involved in corruption cases. The sources said the accused family can face up to 14 years imprisonment, heavy fine and freezing of property as per the NAB Ordinance, 1999.
In case of a decision of punishment by the accountability court, Nawaz Sharif, Maryiam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Muhammad Safdar will become ineligible/disqualified to hold any public office for 10 years. They said that the first time in 17 years history of the NAB, the accountability court will take a decision on such a big and important case within the six months.
It is worthy to note here that the Supreme Court has set comprehensive guidelines for filing NAB reference against the Sharif family, which was never fixed for any case to some extent. Similarly, NAB will not initiate fresh investigation into the allegations against the Sharif family. But it will prepare the reference in the light of a report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which was earlier formed by the apex court to probe the offshore wealth of the Sharif family.
The officials said that the former prime minister had earlier advised his legal team on July 15, 2017, to try to convince the court to hand over the matter to NAB and make necessary preparations for fighting a case in the accountability bureau. The Joint Investigation Team, formed by the Supreme Court, has found disparities in the family’s known sources of income and their actual wealth which the report says that the Sharif family was unable to substantiate.
The JIT’s report on the probe suggests that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his sons, as well as daughter have been found in violation of Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance 1999. It also recommended the filing of reference against Nawaz Sharif and his sons with the NAB. It is worth mentioning here that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N will complete its constitutional tenure till May 2018.
