NAB ponders over filing references against Sharifs 

ISLAMABAD: The Executive Board of the National Accountability Bureau on Tuesday authorised inquiries against six sugar mills for their alleged involvement in misappropriating funds.

The six sugar mills are M/s Abdullah Sugar Mills (Formerly Yousaf Sugar Mills) Lahore, M/s Abdullah Sugar Mills Depalpur/Lahore, M/s TMK Sugar Mills Karachi, M/s Seri Sugar Mills Karachi, M/s Tandianwala Sugar Mills Lahore and M/s Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills Lahore.

The board met here under Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry. The board examined the status of process of filing the reference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

Though the issue of discussion was not mentioned in the announcement issued after the board meeting, sources said that the board was told that an application had been filed to get the copies of JIT report, including volume 10.

In its meeting last month, the board had given go-ahead to file references against the Sharif family and it was decided that these will be prepared on the basis of material collected and referred to by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in its report and some other material as may be available with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB having nexus with the assets in the below mentioned cases or which might subsequently become available including material that may become available in pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance requests sent by JIT to different jurisdictions.

The board decided to authorise three investigations as the first investigation was authorized against Sheladia Associates Pakistan and officials of Sheladia Associates Pakistan and others in construction of 22-km Barang Road in FATA.

In this case, the accused persons were alleged for overpayment and obtaining kickbacks/commission from contractors causing a loss of Rs89.959 million to the national exchequer.  

The second investigation was authorized against officials of GDA and others and in this case, the accused persons were alleged for misuse of authority in illegal allotment of plots causing a loss of Rs45 million to the national exchequer.  

The third investigation was authorised against M/s Pakcom (Insta Phone) and others. In this case, the accused persons were alleged for willful default in payment of outstanding dues to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) causing a loss of Rs21.624 billion to the national exchequer.  

The board decided to authorise 11 inquiries. The first inquiry was authorised against the Managing Committee of the Ministry of Interior Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Raja Ali Akbar and others.

In this case, the accused persons were alleged for less land supplied by Raja Ali Akbar than the payments made by the Managing Committee of Ministry of Interior Employees Cooperative Housing Society causing a loss of Rs144 million to the national exchequer. 

The second inquiry was authorised against Dr. Mujahid Kamran, Vice Chancellor (VC), University of the Punjab. In this case, the accused person is alleged for misuse of authority and cheating public at large causing a huge loss to the national exchequer. 

The third inquiry was authorised against officers/officials of MEPCO and others. In this case, the accused persons were alleged for misuse of authority causing a loss of Rs50 million to the national exchequer.

The fourth inquiry was authorised against Abdul Ghaffar Memon S/o Abdul Sattar Memon, Government Contractor. In this case, the accused person is alleged for Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) referred to by the State Bank of Pakistan under 31-D of NAO.

The fifth inquiry was authorised against Chairman/Director M/s Aeroluba Pvt Ltd and others.  In this case, the accused persons were alleged for misuse of authority and misappropriation of JP-1 supplies by the management of Aerolube Pvt Ltd by supplying the prohibited JP-1 to open market instead of aviation, causing a loss of Rs2,370 million to the national exchequer.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said the NAB was committed to eradicating corruption by adopting zero tolerance policy.