ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) executive board on Wednesday postponed for a day an important meeting in which corruption references against members of the Sharif family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar were to be finalised.
Sources said that the meeting was delayed because the bureau’s prosecutor general was in Lahore on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court had ordered NAB on July 28 to file several references against Nawaz, his children Hussain, Hasan and Maryam, son-in-law MNA Capt (r) Safdar and close aide Ishaq Dar within six weeks, from the date of the court’s order, in an accountability court.
According to details, the references will be reviewed by the bureau’s executive board after which NAB will file the references before the accountability court.
On Tuesday, NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry rejected recommendations by the bureau’s regional chiefs of Rawalpindi and Lahore to freeze assets of the Sharif family members and Dar. He also rejected the recommendation to add the names of Sharif, Hasan, Hussain and Dar on the Exit Control List (ECL).
References
The SC on July 28, had ordered NAB to file a reference against Nawaz, Maryam, Hussain, Hasan and Capt (r) Safdar, relating to the Avenfield properties (flats 16, 16-A, 17 and 17-A Avenfield House, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom).
“In preparing and filing this Reference, the NAB shall also consider the material already collected during the course of investigations conducted earlier, as indicated in the detailed judgments,” the court ruled.
The court also ordered the filing of a reference against Nawaz, Hussain and Hasan regarding the Azizia Steel Company and Hill Metal Establishment.
The court had also called for filing a reference against Dar for possessing assets and funds beyond his known sources of income.
The SC also ordered NAB to include in its proceedings all other persons, including Sheikh Saeed [nephew of Dar’s wife], Musa Ghani [son of a retired officer from London Stock Exchange], Kashif Masood Qazi [Nawaz’s friend], Javaid Kiyani, and National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed, who have any direct or indirect nexus or connection with the actions of Nawaz, Hussain, Hasan, Maryam and Dar, leading to acquisition of assets and funds beyond their known sources of income.
A reference was also ordered against Nawaz, Hussain and Hasan regarding the companies mentioned in paragraph nine of the judgment in the Panama Papers case.
The court also gave NAB the option to file supplementary reference(s) “if and when any other asset, which is not prima facie reasonably accounted for, is discovered”.
