Despite the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) relentless pursuit to get details of Hussain Nawaz’s bank account from the Home Office’s International Criminality Unit under Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA), the investigation has hit a dead-end.
According to Geo, since June 2017, the bureau has sent at least seven requests to the UK Central Authority (UKCA) International Criminality Unit to find Hussain’s account details to help Pakistani authorities with its cases in the accountability courts.
However, the problem for both the UK and Pakistan arises out of the fact that Hussain has no bank accounts in the UK.
Eight letters written by the UKCA’s International Criminality Unit on November 17, 2017, to Pakistani authorities confirm that MLA will be accepted in Hussain’s case.
The Home Office then requested the National Crime Agency (NCA) to carry out sweeping searches on Hussain and asked for assistance in locating accounts in Deutsche Bank, UBS, Lloyds TSB Bank, and Halifax. An NCA report has now communicated to the Home Office that Hussain doesn’t hold accounts in any of the aforementioned banks, neither now nor at any time in the past.
The caseworker at the Home Office, in its response to all of the requests by the Pakistani authorities, has said that the help will be offered to Pakistan, stating, “Your request for assistance has been considered and accepted by the UK Central Authority (UKCA) on behalf of the Secretary of State and forwarded to the National Crime Agency (NCA) for execution.”
Written in the third week of November last year, the letter by the Home Office asked NAB to notify it if it did not require assistance, so that the UKCA could close the file and confirm to the NCA.
NAB, responding that it would appreciate assistance, has continued to ask for legal assistance.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Pakistan High Commission has said that they had no idea about the presence of a NAB team in London.
