NAB gives Nawaz clean chit in Toshakhana case

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has given a clean chit to former prime minister and PMLN Quaid Nawaz Sharif in the Toshakhana case and submitted a report to the accountability court, Islamabad, in this regard.

According to the report, the case may attract any other offence but it has no relevance to Toshakhana, as the subject vehicle when purchased was not part of the Toshakhana but Federal Transport Pool.

The NAB said in the report that it was, therefore, requested that the referral of Supreme Court was in relation to fake bank accounts whereas, Nawaz Sharif did not pay the said amount from fake bank account. “Furthermore, this vehicle was surrendered at the relevant time and when Nawaz Sharif purchased it in 2008, the same was not part of Toshakhana. Therefore, the court may discharge/acquit the accused, as the case may be, the court has ample power to do so,” the report said.

According to the case filed by NAB, then-prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, in order to extend illegal benefits to Nawaz and then-president Asif Ali Zardari, allegedly allowed the retention of vehicles gifted to them by different foreign states and dignitaries by relaxing procedures related to the submission of gifts in the Toshakhana.

The accused, “through dishonest and illegal means for their personal benefit and interest”, retained the vehicles in question “against a nominal payment of 15 per cent of the total value”, the reference stated.

In June 2020, an accountability court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the PMLN supremo, who had skipped hearings because he had begun his self-imposed exile in London. Months later, Nawaz had challenged the warrants in the Islamabad High Court but withdrew the petition days later.

On Sept 10, 2020, the ex-premier was declared a proclaimed offender in the case, with an accountability court initiating the process to confiscate his properties and directing the accountability watchdog to make his arrest through Interpol.

Ahead of his return to Pakistan in October last year, an accountability court had suspended the perpetual arrest warrants issued in 2020 for the ex-premier in the case. The PMLN supremo was granted bail days later. In November, NAB informed a Lahore accountability court that it had recorded Nawaz’s statement in the reference.

On Wednesday, the NAB submitted a report to an Islamabad accountability court following its orders to have Nawaz join the investigation.

According to the report, a copy of which is available with The News, the vehicle concerned was gifted to then-PM Nawaz by the government of Saudi Arabia in 1997 and was submitted in the Toshakhana.

It added that later, the car was included in the federal transport pool. In 2008, then-premier Gilani had offered Nawaz to buy the car, the latter did so from the federal transport pool and not the Toshakhana, the NAB report said. The court adjourned further hearing of the case till May 7.