All legal means in place to repatriate Nawaz: PM’s aide

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Amid an intensifying effort to repatriate Nawaz Sharif, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar called on Shahbaz Sharif to “show responsibility” and produce his brother before the law as the Islamabad High Court set for hearing the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) appeal against the Flagship Investments case acquittal on September 1.

In a press conference alongside PM’s aide on political communication Shahbaz Gill and Punjab information minister Fayyazul Hasan Chohan, Akbar said the government is utilising “all legal sources” to bring back the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo, state media reported.

Nawaz Sharif was given conditional permission by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to go abroad as long as he returned on the stipulated timeframe, Akbar said. He added that the LHC had directed Sharif to submit a written undertaking about his travel abroad and return.

The adviser said the interior ministry directed Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan on February 27 this year. He also said Sharif had not given the government any proof about his medical treatment in the United Kingdom.

The former prime minister has been convalescing in the United Kingdom since November last year after having been granted bail on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia case.

Akbar also criticised the opposition over what he characterised as stonewalling Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) legislation to gain an amnesty, which he referred to as “NRO plus plus plus”.

He warned that Pakistan was in danger of moving from the FATF’s “grey list” to the “black list”. “If Pakistan were to be pushed into that list, we would become like Iraq and Iran after the wars. We would not even be able to import medicines [due to the sanctions imposed].”

Akbar stressed that the matter was crucial and that when the government had come into power it took the matter “very seriously”.

When Gill spoke, he asked the reporters to Google “EDTA testing” and spoke on methods to influence test results, alleging Sharif left the country using “false reports” as a pretext.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court will hear on September 1 the NAB’s petition challenging the former prime minister’s acquittal in the Flagship Investments graft case. According to Geo News, Justices Aamer Farooq and Mohsin Akhtar Kayani will hear the appeal.

The anti-graft body will also request doubling Sharif’s sentence in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference — from seven to 14 years. Ahead of Shahzad Akbar’s press conference, federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said Sharif’s departure to London caused a great setback to the narrative of the ruling PTI as well as the process of accountability.

The minister took to Twitter saying that approaching the British government for the return of the PML-N supremo and an inquiry into medical reports were steps in the right direction. “Those who played a role in the preparation of fake reports should made examples of,” said the minister.

Responding to the government, PML-N spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb said Prime Minister Imran Khan has “no standing” to provide any amnesty, and criticised his government’s “historic corruption” and “failure to perform” in two years.

She also said it was the PML-N that suggested clauses of money laundering be added alongside terror financing in FATF legislation.

In an earlier tweet, she said Nawaz Sharif went abroad legally at the request of Punjab government, but the politics of Imran Khan “always revolve around Quaid of PML-N”.

She added that PTI officials make statements against Nawaz Sharif to “distract the masses from their incompetence” and urged the government to take steps to bring back Jahangir Khan Tareen instead of making statements against PML-N leadership.