LONDON: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team that was in London for the Avenfield apartments case probe against the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has returned after completing the investigation, according to a local media outlet.
NAB’s Deputy Director Sultan Nazeer, case officer in the Avenfield Reference, and Imran Dogar, investigation officer, said at the airport that nothing new has been discovered in the investigation that could help further the Avenfield properties investigation.
The two-member NAB team was in London for a six-day period for the investigation. According to the team, they reportedly had meetings with the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Home Office’s UK Central Authority and said that they were “hopeful” about the outcome of these meetings and would be handing over their findings to the authorities on Tuesday.
The NAB team consisted of Deputy Director Sultan Nazeer, case officer in the Avenfield Reference, and Imran Dogar who is investigation officer in the said reference.
According to reports, the UK home office had readily accepted NAB’s request for legal assistance in the case of Hussain Nawaz, however, request for such assistance in the case of Hassan Nawaz— as he is a British national— was only accepted after several requests made by the Joint Investigation Team’s (JIT) London based lawyers, in this regard.
They were there to collect evidence regarding the properties and meet with Nawaz Sharif’s sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz to get their official statements on the subject.
Both Hussain and Hassan Nawaz have been declared public offenders for not appearing before the trial court in the Avenfield case.
Maryam Nawaz is the beneficial owner of the said properties, according to the official papers sent by the British authorities to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which was founded by the Supreme Court to investigate the Panama Papers scandal.
A reference was filed by NAB before the Islamabad Accountability Court against the disqualified prime minister, his daughter Maryam and sons Hassan and Hussain regarding the UK Avenfield properties, according to the directions of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers verdict.