NAB writes letter to Saudi authorities

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has written a letter under the Mutual Legal Assistance to authorities in Saudi Arabia seeking details of properties of the Sharif family.

In the letter, NAB sought details of Azizia Steel Mills and requested the Saudi authorities to provide the record by August 30.The NAB had already summoned Nawaz Sharif and his two sons — Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz — today (Friday) to record the statement.

The Bureau constituted teams to interrogate former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his sons and a 14-member NAB team had been set up and would be further divided into four sub-teams. Every team would comprise a director, case officer and an investigation officer.

The case officer will be from NAB’s Legal Wing and all the case officers will file the case on the advice of the investigation team’s officer and all the four teams will work underthe director generals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the NAB decided not to reopen the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against the Sharif family on a ground that Rawalpindi division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had restrained the accountability court from proceeding in the matter and unless the Supreme Court suspended the LHC decision, it could not be opened under the law.

According to sources in the NAB, the decision was taken by the Bureau on the advice of the prosecution branch on the grounds that earlier in October 2011, a Rawalpindi division bench of the LHC restrained the accountability court from proceeding in the matter after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and members of his family challenged the revival of the references and requested the court to quash the cases.

The sources said the LHC decision of quashing the case is still intact and the Supreme Court has not asked for quashing the LHC decision in its judgment. The NAB authorities also stated that the Supreme Court has not clearly directed to reopen the Hudaibiya case.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court provided to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) four complete certified copies of the confidential volume-10 of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in the Panama Papers case that ultimately led to the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for not being honest while hiding salary from a Dubai-based company, Capital FZE.

The sources close to Registrar Office of the Supreme Court confided to The News that four complete certified copies of the confidential volume-10, consisting 415 pages of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report was handed over to the NAB’s representative.

In pursuance of the apex court order in Panama case, the anti-graft body had requested the apex court registrar’s office twice for the provision of certified copies of the report of JIT ranging from Volume 1 to 10 for filling references against Sharif family.

The Registrar office had already provided four complete certified copies of first nine volumes of JIT report to NAB on its request but had turned down twice the request of the anti-graft body seeking volume 10 of the JIT report.

The Volume 10 of the JIT report, which contains details of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) with various countries, has not been made public by the Supreme Court on the request of the six-member JIT’s chairman Wajid Zia. On July 10, the JIT requested the apex court to keep volume 10 confidential as according to JIT head Wajid Zia, it could help in carrying out further investigations.