PM’s aide challenges Shahbaz to file lawsuit in London court

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Monday challenged former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif to file a lawsuit against him in a London court after publication of a story by the Daily Mail exposing alleged corruption and money laundering of the Sharif family.

Speaking at a press conference here, he said the British newspaper, in its investigative report, revealed about the fake telegraphic transfers and money laundering from multiple accounts by Shahbaz and members of his family.

He said since the Panama Papers case, the Sharif family had not given specific answers to the allegations levelled against them.

Shahzad said the picture showed by Marriyum Aurangzeb in her press conference featuring British journalist David Rose was taken at the time of last elections. He said according to the Financial Monitoring Unit of State Bank of Pakistan, the Sharif family had made some 200 remittances amounting to $26 million sine 2007 till now.

He said Hamza Sharif was in the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and during his investigation it was proved that the money was laundered through telegraphic

transfers, 99 per cent of which were fake.

Shahbaz, his son Salman Shahbaz and other members of the family were absconders, he alleged. He claimed 90 per cent of the money held by the wife of Shahbaz had come through remittances. The Sharif family, he said, made 36 companies with the seed money that had come through remittances from abroad.

According to the newspaper’s story, 200 million pound came in the bank accounts of Shahbaz and his family members through fake telegraphic transfers that were made by the persons like Manzoor Paparwala, he added.

The family of Shahbaz, he said, had established fake companies and the money was remitted to them through dubious bank accounts. He alleged Ali Imran, son-in-law of Shahbaz, had embezzled the funds of the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) given to him by Finance Director of ERRA Naveed Ikram, who in a plea bargain with the NAB admitted that he had embezzled Rs 499 million. Later, the NAB made recoveries from Naveed Ikram as he had accumulated wealth amounting to Rs 1 billion.

Shahzad said corruption was also done in the case of Saaf Pani company in Punjab and from that money Ali Imran constructed a commercial plaza in Lahore, which was later confiscated by the NAB.

He said Asif Ali Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif adopted the same way of transferring money through telegraphic transfers using four similar companies.

Shahbaz, he said, with the money remitted from abroad had bought houses in Murree, Model Town Lahore and Defence Housing Authority, which would be confiscated after the conclusion of cases in courts, and the money recovered would be spent on the people’s welfare through the Ehsaas Programme.

Shahzad said the rebuttal made by the Department of International Development (DFID) of United Kingdom about the Daily Mail’s story was about the effectiveness of its system to stop wrongdoings. He said the government would expand the Ehsaas Programme by broadening the tax base and increasing the number of taxpayers to facilitate the poor people.

He said austerity would be observed during the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the United States. To a question about release of persons through courts after filing of references by the NAB, he said the present system of prosecution was weak and the accused were hiring expensive lawyers.References would be filed against Asif Ali Zardari during his 90-day physical remand by the NAB, he added.