NAB opposes Maryam’s bail on humanitarian grounds

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday opposed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s bail plea in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) money laundering case on humanitarian grounds, saying that she could flee the country or go underground if released on bail.

In a written reply submitted before the Lahore High Court division bench, the NAB said proceedings against Maryam are initiated strictly in accordance with the law on a suspicious transaction report submitted by the Financial Monitoring Unit in 2018.

The NAB in its reply said the petitioner has been trying to frustrate and hamper the investigation and there is likelihood of her fleeing the country. “There are chances that the accused will scarce herself or go underground or become unavailable,” it said, adding that co-accused Yousaf Abbas has also tried to escape abroad.

The bureau said the petitioner has been trying to mislead the court, taking a misconceived plea that the Chaudhry Sugar Mills has already been a subject matter of three references filed by a JIT in the Panama Papers case and subsequently decided by an Islamabad accountability court. It said the allegations in the instant inquiry found no mention in the mandate of the Panama Papers’ JIT.

Rejecting another argument of the petitioner against the jurisdiction of the bureau, the NAB said the allegations under probe and the evidence collected so far attracts the offences of corruption and corrupt practices as defined in the National accountability Ordinance 1999 for which the chairman NAB has absolute jurisdiction to conduct probe to the exclusion of any other agency. The NAO 1999 was promulgated to curb the menace of corruption and recover looted amounts from the culprits and it has been given overriding effect on all other laws. Whereas the scope of purpose, object and underlying policy of the Companies Act as well as the SECP Act is altogether different from the NAO 1999, which is necessary to be looked into while deciding the prevalence of one law over the other. The Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the Companies Act 2017 have no nexus with the offences mentioned in section 9 of the NAO 1999.

The bureau has already filed its reply challenging a civil miscellaneous application by Maryam, seeking bail in the same case on humanitarian grounds to look after her ailing father. The anti-corruption watchdog asked the court to dismiss the bail petition of Maryam for being devoid and without merit. It stated that the ground invoked by the petitioner, if entertained by the court, will open the floodgates to petitions by prisoners languishing in jails.

As the hearing underwent on Monday, the LHC heard both the main petition and the miscellaneous petition together. During the hearing by a two-member bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem, the court asked whether the PML-N vice president is meeting her father Nawaz Sharif in hospital.

To which, the defense counsel, Azam Nazir Tarar, confirmed that she has been granted permission to meet Nawaz. The court asked if the NAB has submitted its reply to Maryam’s petition, after which the reply was presented in the court.

Last week, the bench had allowed bail to ex-PM Nawaz in the same case on medical grounds after doctors treating him termed his condition critical. The court asked Maryam’s lawyer to submit his response to the NAB reply by Tuesday.

Maryam approached the LHC on September 30, seeking bail in the said case, which is currently being investigated by the NAB. Following the sudden deterioration in the health of her father Nawaz Sharif on October 21, she then filed a miscellaneous petition three days later on Oct 24, seeking immediate bail on the basis of “fundamental rights and humanitarian reasons”.

NAB suspects Maryam of involvement in money laundering through investments of variable heavy amounts being the main shareholder of the sugar mill. It has been alleged that she was involved in money laundering with the help of some foreigners during the period of 1992-93 when Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister. The bureau had arrested Maryam and her cousin, Yousaf Abbas Sharif, on August 8.