LAHORE: Accountability court on Thursday has launched proceedings to declare Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif’s daughter Rabia Imran as proclaimed offender in money laundering case.
According to details, the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) investigators have pasted notices outside the court and Rabia’s house for continuously skipping case hearings.
The names of ten members of Sharif family were included in Exit Control List (ECL) in connection with money laundering case inquiry. Names of Shehbaz Sharif’s wife Nusrat and two daughters Javeria and Rabia were also put on no-fly list.
The Federal Cabinet had approved the summary and barred the listed people from traveling abroad till the conclusion of the case. According to the NAB investigation report, Chief Financial Officer of Sharif family Muhammad Usman laundered money for the Shehbaz family.
Muhammad Usman started working for the Sharif family in 2005 at Ramzan Sugar Mills for Rs 90,000 per month. In 2006, the Nawaz family acquired Hudaibiya Engineering from the Shehbaz family and in 2007, the Shehbaz family made more companies, including the Sharif Feed Mill, to expand their business.
The bank accounts of Shehbaz Sharif’s wife Nusrat Shehbaz and his sons were used for foreign remittances and loans. On the direction of Salman, Waqar Trading Company made fake foreign remittances of Rs 600 million.
The entire amount was transferred to Salman Shehbaz’s personal account via cheque but it is not known where Salman receives his money from. On September 28, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team had arrested Shehbaz Sharif in money laundering case after Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected his bail plea.
A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem and Justice Farooq Haider heard the plea, during which Shehbaz Sharif’s lawyer presented his arguments.
Counsel of PML-N President argued that Shehbaz Sharif saved over Rs1,000 billion of national exchequer and never received his pay as a member of National Assembly. No evidence was available against Shehbaz Sharif in money laundering case and none of the witnesses accused PML-N leader of the ill practice, he said.
Later, accountability court had sent Shehbaz Sharif to the Kot Lakhpat Jail on 14-day judicial remand in the same case. The court conducted hearing on the money laundering case against the PML-N president who maintained that he had already given all details to the NAB on October 26, 2018 and the questionnaire is old.
Shehbaz Sharif said the arguments of the anti-graft body’s investigation officer are contrary to facts to which the official replied that interrogations in 2018 were conducted of the Ashiana Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases. NNI
