NAB’s raid to arrest Hamza fails on resistance

LAHORE: A National Accountability Bureau team on Friday conducted a raid on the residence of Punjab Assembly’s Opposition Leader Hamza Shahbaz in a bid to arrest him in an assets beyond means and money laundering case.

However, following the directions of the NAB chairman and heavy resistance by Hamza’s guards and PML-N workers, the raiding party had to return unsuccessfully.

As per sources, Hamza was due to appear on Friday at 10am before the Combined Investigation Team of the NAB in the assets beyond means and money laundering case, but he failed to appear after which a team was sent to arrest him along with his arrest warrants from his residence 96-H, Model Town, which is also the residence of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif.

The NAB intelligence team comprising nine officials led by a deputy director reached the residence at around 12:15pm. Hamza’s guards didn’t allow the raiding team to enter the house. The NAB team leader asked the guards to let him talk to Hamza, but he wasn’t allowed to talk to Hamza and any other family member. It has been learnt that at that time, Shahbaz Sharif was also present in the house.

Meanwhile, a number of PML-N workers started gathering outside the 96-H and staged a sit-in in front of the gate and verbally pushed the NAB team away from the residence. In the meantime, the legal team of the Shahbaz family also reached the scene and started a dialogue with the NAB team on the legality of the arrest of their client, but the dialogue didn’t reach any conclusion.

The NAB claims that one of its junior officers was manhandled and his clothes were torn apart by the PML-N workers. However, the claim couldn’t be verified through independent sources. It has been learnt that DG NAB Lahore Saleem Shahzad, who was monitoring this operation from his office, informed the NAB chairman about the gravity of the situation. The NAB chairman, after receiving the information, ordered the NAB team to return without arrest.

After the failed arrest episode, the NAB Lahore issued two press releases having almost the same content. The first press release said a team had gone to arrest Hamza on the basis of solid evidence against him in the assets beyond means and money laundering case. During the raid, NAB officials were manhandled by Hamza’s guards, their clothes were torn and death threats were given. It said NAB officials had gone to the residence with an arrest warrant as the supreme court has stated that the accountability bureau is not required to inform any accused prior to arresting him. The press release added that Hamza had violated the law and the bureau, on the basis of evidence against him and in light of supreme court directives, would arrest him.

In the other press release, the NAB said a reference of a civil petition No 18 of 2017 (NAB Vs Syed Jalil Arshad) explains the arrest authority of the bureau. It said the elements which tried to stop government officials from doing their duty will be dealt with legally.

Earlier, a call up notice was issued to Hamza on April 4, a copy of which is available with The News, directing him to appear before the NAB CID on April 5. The NAB also summoned in this investigations Shahbaz Sharif on April 9. Shahbaz will be questioned regarding money laundering allegations and assets beyond known sources of income. Suleman Shahbaz has also been summoned, but, most probably, he will not turn up on Aril 9 as he is residing abroad.

NAB sources informed this scribe about the circumstances in which the bureau decided to arrest Hamza. It has been leant that the bureau has arrested two alleged money laundering facilitators of the Shahbaz family namely Qasim Qayyum and Fazal Dad Abbasi. The physical remand of both the accused was obtained on Friday.

As per remand documents presented in the court, the NAB stated that the NAB chairman received a report from the Financial Monitoring Unit of the State Bank of Pakistan on January 12, 2018. The report showed a huge volume of suspicious transactions in the bank accounts of Hamza Shahbaz, Shahbaz Sharif and Suleman Shahbaz, following which a money laundering inquiry was started against the Shahbaz family.

The investigations led to the arrest of Qasim Qayyum and Fazal Dad Abbasi. The NAB claimed the evidence collected so far reveals that both the accused provided a channel to the Shahbaz family for laundering the money by arranging false eateries for foreign remittances ostensibly sent by various individuals to their co-accused Shahbaz Sharif, Hamza, Suleman and others.

It was revealed that Qasim Qayyum was running an illegal foreign exchange business at Sadiq Plaza, The Mall, and at Ali Tower, MM Alam Road, from 2005 to 2018. Qasim used to collect cash from the office of Suleman Shahbaz at 55-K, Model Town, Lahore, along with his employees and arranged fictitious foreign remittances (telegraphic transfers) in the bank accounts of the Shahbaz family. Fazal Dad Abbasi is an old employee of the Sharif Family and had been working with Suleman Shahbaz since 2005. He used to collect cash from different sources and handed over to Qasim Quyyum for arranging fictitious foreign remittances in the bank accounts of Shahbaz family. The NAB stated that as per the financial monitoring report, the said transactions were worth billions.

The sources informed that after these revelations, the arrest of Hamza was inevitable. Hamza was most likely to be arrested from the NAB office as he was due on April 5 but the arrest of Qayyum and Fazal Dad cautioned Hamza and he didn’t show up.

Meanwhile, an application has been moved by the NAB to the Model Town Police Station, seeking registration of a case against the guards of Hamza.

The application was moved by NAB SHO Umer Daraz. He contended in the application that the NAB team showed arrest warrants to the guards deployed at the gate namely Shahbaz Khan, Abdul Rehman and Saleem Khan. The guards got furious and took down the driver of the NAB vehicle and tortured him. The guards tore the clothes of the NAB driver and gave life threats.

NAB spokesperson Zeeshan Ahmad confirmed that the FIR has been registered. However, he didn’t share the names of the nominated accused in the FIR.

Meanwhile, Hamza Shahbaz has termed a NAB raid on his residence a breach of the sanctity of Chaadar and Chardiwari and a blatant violation of the supreme court orders warranting a 10-day notice before arrest.

Addressing a press conference following the raid on his Model Town residence, Hamza expressed sorrow that he is being treated like a terrorist as officials climbed over the walls to break into his house. He vowed to challenge the cowardly political victimization at every forum. However, he added, his party would not work for dislodging the PTI government because they do not want the PTI to become political martyrs.

He said the NAB raid to arrest him is a highly shameful act and it is like a catastrophe that befell his house. He said he is a responsible citizen and appearing before the NAB regularly despite having serious reservations on NAB cases. He said he would not disclose the language used with him during NAB investigations. He expressed sorrow that his daughter was fighting for her life but Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team took political mileage on the issue despite the fact that he returned home one day ahead of the time allowed by courts.

Hamza recalled that only a day earlier, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) had ruled that according to Islamic Shariah, the NAB should not handcuff the accused or do anything that amounted to ridicule them. He recalled that corruption of billions of rupees came to light and the accused are roaming freely, but only Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Hamza are being arrested. He warned that after such shameful acts of the NAB, nobody’s honour would remain protected in the country. He advised Prime Minister Imran Khan if he wants to catch thieves, he should look for them in his cabinet and party. He said the PTI government proved nothing against the Sharif family despite raising slogans of thieves, dacoits, corruption and money laundering for the last eight months. He alleged that NAB officials also manhandled those present in the house and hurled verbal invectives.

Meanwhile, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurengzeb also condemned the NAB raid on Hamza’s residence and alleged that the raid was conducted on direct personal orders from Prime Minister Imran Khan. In a statement, she alleged that Imran has lost his mental balance and is resorting to cheap tactics against political opponents. She said so far no allegation of corruption of even a single rupee could be proved against the Sharif family, but Hamza’s home was raided in blatant violation of supreme court orders and standard practice. She alleged that the NAB is behaving like a gang of dacoits instead of acting like an investigation agency. She recalled that nothing could be proved in the cases made against Shahbaz Sharif. She asked the PTI government to explain why Hamza is being treated like a terrorist or criminal. She said the NAB officials raided the house and entered it by climbing over the walls like terrorists.