The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) access to Volume X of the final report of the joint investigation team (JIT) that probed allegations of money laundering against the Sharif family in the Panama case.
The complete contents of the previously withheld volume have been made available to the bureau a day before former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his two sons have been summoned to appear before NAB investigators in Lahore.
NAB was asked to file four references in the Rawalpindi accountability court on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the JIT against members of the Sharif family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in keeping with the apex court’s verdict in the Panama case.
‘Volume X’ of the report contains details of mutual legal assistance (MLA) with various countries and has not been made public by the Supreme Court on the request of the six-member JIT’s Chairman Wajid Zia.
Earlier, the SC had only provided the NAB with the first nine volumes of the report, withholding the tenth. However, last week, NAB had filed an application with the SC, requesting complete certified copies of the report. The bureau needed at least four certified and complete copies to finalise the references.
The disqualified prime minister and his sons are expected to appear before investigators of NAB in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case on Friday.
The Azizia Steel Mills case will be the first of many cases that NAB is going to probe.
National Accountability Bureau’s Rawlpindi team will grill ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his elder son Hassan, and younger son Hussain today (Friday) at Lahore.
NAB Rawalpindi team will interrogate Nawaz, Hassan, and Hussain in the light of the findings of the report of the six-member Joint Investigation Team formed by the Supreme Court to probe the Panama Papers case.
According to sources Nawaz and his two sons will appear before the combined team of NAB tomorrow in Lahore.
Sources informed further that ousted prime minister and his two sons would be probed over the acquiring of Azizia Steel Mill as well as the London flats.
NAB has summoned Nawaz Sharif in his personal capacity. Sources said that NAB Rawalpindi is preparing two references while a combined investigation team of NAB Lahore is preparing two other references.
According to sources NAB Lahore is tasked to probe Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s beyond the income assets of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. NAB is drafting the questionnaire in the light of the findings of Volume 10 of the JIT report.
NAB Rawalpindi’s team will go to Lahore to record the statements of Nawaz Sharif and his two sons.
Meanwhile, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has written a letter to the Saudi government seeking details of Sharif family’s assets. The letter is sent by NAB Rawalpindi DG through the Foreign Ministry. NAB has also written a letter to Saudi government for the records of Al-Azizia Steel Mill.
The purpose of writing letters to Saudi government is to help compare and match JIT records with the Saudi records. It may be mentioned here that Hussain Nawaz had plead that London flats were bought from the funds acquired by the selling Al-Azizia Steel Mill. NAB has approached the Saudi government to seek details of assets owned by Nawaz Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, and Hassan Nawaz. It has also sought details of the sources of payment for the purchase of Al-Azizia Steel Mill.
NAB has asked the Saudi government to provide it the information by August 30.
