Nawaz misses NAB: Will appear before accountability court tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ignored the summon of appearance before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday to record statement in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investments Ltd cases.

Nawaz Sharif was asked to appear before the investigation team at 11:00am but he did not appear before the team of NAB Rawalpindi that waited for him till closing of the office time.

DG NAB Rawalpindi Irfan Mangi, who has served as member of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe Nawaz Sharif’s assets in the Panama Papers case, was heading the investigating team with Additional Director NAB Rawalpindi Nasir Janjua and Muhammad Rizwan also preparing the supplementary references in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investments Ltd cases.

According to the PML-N sources, it was already decided by the party that the former prime minister and his children will only appear before the courts of law and not before the NAB and in line of the policy devised by the party the children of Nawaz Sharif also did not appear before the NAB.

The NAB Rawalpindi office is preparing supplementary references in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment Ltd cases against the Sharifs. The supplementary references are likely to be filed next week in the accountability court hearing the ongoing cases against the former premier.

Sources said the NAB has got the transcription of interview of Hussain Nawaz Sharif with Hamid Mir in a Geo TV programme ‘Capital Talk’.

The NAB had approached the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to get the recording of interview of Hussain Nawaz, but Pemra responded that it did not keep the record beyond 90 days. The NAB had earlier filed three corruption references against the Sharif family in September last year in light of the Supreme Court's July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case. The references pertain to the Al-Azizia Steel Mills, offshore companies, including the Flagship Investment Ltd, and Avenfield properties of London.

Meanwhile, sources said Nawaz Sharif will appear before the accountability court tomorrow (Monday).