NAB told Hussain Nawaz has no bank account in UK

LONDON: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been relentlessly pursuing the Home Office’s International Criminality Unit under Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) to get bank account details of Hussain Nawaz Sharif but it has hit a dead end.

The News has seen official communication between the UK and Pakistan, giving a clear idea of what Pakistan’s accountability czar wants from the British authorities against Hussain Nawaz Sharif, the eldest son of former PM Nawaz Sharif.

The NAB has requested the UK Central Authority (UKCA), International Criminality Unit, in at least seven requests since June 2017 to find bank account details of Hussain Nawaz Sharif and pass on to Pakistani authorities to help in its cases at the NAB courts. The problem for both the UK and Pakistan arises out of the fact that Hussain Nawaz Sharif has no bank accounts in the UK with any bank or housing society.

The News has seen eight letters written by the UKCA’s International Criminality Unit on Nov 17, 2017 to Pakistani authorities confirming that MLA will be accepted in the case of Hussain Nawaz Sharif.

The Home Office then asked the National Crime Agency (NCA) to carry out sweeping searches on Hussain Nawaz Sharif and help in locating bank accounts in Deutsche Bank, UBS, Lloyds TSB Bank and Halifax. The NCA has now told the Home Office in a report that Hussain Nawaz Sharif doesn’t hold accounts in any of these banks, neither now nor at anytime in the past, a trusted source has told this scribe.

Letters sent by the NAB to UK’s Home Office – seen by this correspondence – show that Pakistan has filed nearly a dozen requests to Britain under the subject “Letter of request for legal assistance in the matter of Hussain Nawaz Sharif” seeking account details in Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Bank, UBS and Halifax and details of any properties and assets that could be linked to Hussain Nawaz Sharif.

The caseworker at the Home Office has written the same reply in relation to all the requests accepting that the help will be offered to Pakistan in relation to Hussain Nawaz Sharif. The caseworker wrote to the NAB, “Your request for assistance has been considered and accepted by the UK Central Authority (UKCA) on behalf of the Secretary of State and forwarded to the National Crime Agency (NCA) for execution.”

The letter by the Home Office, written in 3rd week of November last year, asked the NAB that it should notify the Home Office if it no longer wanted the assistance so that the UKCA could close the file and confirm to the NCA.

The NAB replied to the UKCA that it would appreciate assistance and continue to ask for the legal assistance. One letter written by the NAB to UKCA on June 6, 2017 requested the UKCA to provide help in Hasan Nawaz Sharif’s “supplementary case” and it’s not known what this case pertains to.

The MLA request for bank account details was first sought on May 27, 2017 and then on June 6 and July 6. The UKCA has now told Pakistan that its research showed that Hussain Nawaz Sharif has ownership in the Avenfield flats through an offshore company but has no bank accounts in the UK. The NAB has been informed that Hussain Nawaz has never committed any crime in the UK, has not been involved in any wrongdoing and therefore has never been subject of interest for the authorities. The sources at the NCA, Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have confirmed that there has never been any criminal or civil case against Hussain Nawaz in the UK.

Hussain Nawaz Sharif’s wife and children are British nationals while Hussain Nawaz himself carries Pakistani passport. Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigations at The News, earlier reported that the Home Office agreed to cooperate in the case of Hussain Nawaz, who is not a British national, but refused to provide any information on Hasan Nawaz, the youngest son of Nawaz Sharif who has lived in the UK for nearly 25 years now as a British national.

The sources have confirmed that the Home Office, the NCA or the CPS has not contacted Hasan or Hussain Nawaz Sharif until now in relation to the cases in Pakistan, proving that none of them is of any concern to any of these institutions.

Geo News reported on the weekend that a three-member NAB team, headed by Rawalpindi NAB Director General Zahir Shah, reached London on Sunday to get help from the UK authorities. Prior to the latest visit, two teams of NAB visited London and met the Home Office officials but no actionable evidence had been found yet. A spokesman for Pakistan High Commission said that it had no idea about the presence of NAB team in London.