NBP president, sugar mills body chief appear before NAB

LAHORE: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) President Saeed Ahmed and Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) Chairman Javed Kiyani on Monday appeared before the NAB, Lahore, and recorded their statements regarding the ongoing probe against the Sharif family.

A NAB team led by its regional Director General Maj (retd) Shehzad Saleem had summoned both the individuals. Saeed Ahmed appeared before the investigators at around 11: 30 AM whereas Javed Kayani appeared before the NAB team in the afternoon. 

NAB sources told this correspondent that NAB team questioned NBP President for around four hours regarding alleged money laundering of the Sharif family and Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister. The investigators also questioned him about various fake accounts allegedly used for money laundering during the 1990s.

Similarly, sources said, the investigators questioned Javed Kiyani for around three hours. They questioned him regarding Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, Avenfield flats of Sharifs, business dealings of Sharif family abroad as well as alleged money laundering. 

NAB sources further told that as they have very short time to file these references and there are chances that Saeed Ahmed and Javed Kiyani might be summoned again in near future. On the other hand, Ishaq Dar has been summoned to appear before NAB officials on Tuesday (today). 

Meanwhile, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued a second notice to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retired) Muhamamd Safdar for Tuesday (today).  Earlier, NAB Lahore and NAB Rawalpindi teams issued a summon each to the Sharif family during the last week, but they did not appear. 

Talking with this correspondent on Monday night, Advocate Amjad Parveez confirmed that Sharif family has received the second notice for Tuesday. To a question whether the members of Sharif family would appear before NAB or not, the top lawyer of the Sharifs in NAB cases said, “It will be decided on Tuesday at 11: 00 AM”.

A meeting has been held on Monday regarding how to respond to NAB, he added. A senior NAB official, seeking anonymity, told The News that the Bureau was planning to write its chairman to get permission for putting names of the entire Sharif family mentioned in the Panama Case judgment on Exist Control List (ECL). 

After the nod of chairman NAB, the Bureau would approach Interior ministry, main authority of putting names of individuals on the ECL. “We might write to our chairman regarding putting Sharifs on the ECL after recording statement of Ishaq Dar on Tuesday,” the official said.

To another question, he said, as per normal practice, NAB would serve third notice to Sharif family through Police and if they didn’t join investigation, the chairman NAB might issue their arrest orders. “Summoning twice is mandatory before making arrest of any accused person”, he clarified. 

On the orders of Supreme Court, NAB has to file four references in accountability court against Sharif family and one reference against Ishaq Dar before the September 8th deadline. NAB has also approached SC to get permission for recording statements of members of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which had probed the Panama Case.