ISLAMABAD: Minister for Privatisation Daniyal Aziz said Tuesday that the supplementary reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Sharif family lacked substance and was without any legal grounds.
Addressing a press conference along with Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, he said the filing of a supplementary reference by NAB had no justification when the case was heading towards its logical conclusion.
He said that according to the Panama Papers verdict, supplementary references could be filed after the revelation of any new asset. But the fresh reference filed by the NAB was based on the same old assumptions, he added.
The minister further said it was unfair that legal documents were leaked to the media before being submitted to the accountability court.
Daniyal Aziz said that Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, member of the three-judge bench in the Panama Papers case, had written in his separate note asking NAB to remain in the limits of the verdict and refrain from getting involved in ‘political engineering’.
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was gaining popularity as was evident from the huge crowds witnessed at the recent public gatherings of the party in different cities, including Kot Momin and Mansehra. “The people showed their love for PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his party during the rallies.”
He said that in the recent elections of the district bar associations across Pakistan, around 80 per cent of lawyers affiliated with the PML-N won the main seats, which was another sign of the party’s popularity.
Minister of State Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha said the NAB team that was carrying out investigations against the Sharif family, was hosted by the workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Awami Muslim League (AML) of Sheikh Rasheed during its visits abroad.
He said that filing of such references against Nawaz Sharif pointed towards a certain mindset that wanted to minus the PML-N president from politics. However, such designs would not succeed, he added.
