Assets beyond means case: NAB plea to extend Shahbaz’s physical remand rejected

LAHORE: An accountability court (AC) on Tuesday rejected plea of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), seeking extension in physical remand of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif and sent him to jail on judicial remand in assets beyond means and money-laundering investigation.

NAB failed to satisfy the court as to why further physical custody of Shahbaz was required.

As the hearing commenced on Tuesday, NAB’s prosecutor implored the court to extend physical remand of Shahbaz Sharif for 15 days. The prosecutor argued that Shahbaz was handed over questionnaires regarding his foreign assets, loan liabilities and receiving of gifts from Asma Dar.

The prosecutor also stated that when questionnaires were handed over to the accused, he (Shahbaz) said that the court had already given its observation in this regard.

While responding to the prosecutor in the courtroom, Shahbaz said that he was not given any new questionnaire and his counsel, Advocate Amjad Parvez, would give answers to questions of NAB. “During the course of investigation I had reiterated the court observation,” Shahbaz added.

He said that during the last week, NAB investigators had visited him but did not ask any new thing and all things were already mentioned in the reference.

The investigation officer argued that one Afzaal Bhatti was an accountant of Shahbaz Sharif, and how the accused (Shahbaz) could get loan from his employee. The IO said that Afzaal Bhatti was living in England. He stated that 17,000 pounds were transferred from the account of Suleman Shahbaz to the account of Afzaal Bhatti and then in the account of Shahbaz Sharif. The IO said that Shahbaz was not answering about the said transaction.

Shahbaz replied that the issue of Afzaal Bhatti was also raised by prosecution on the last hearing, and what was new in it. “When the investigation started, I was in the NAB custody. The duration of previous remand and recent one accumulates to 85 days and what NAB had brought new to the investigation,” Shahbaz added.

Advocate Amjad Parvez argued that nowhere NAB had stated that it had not investigated his client in 2018 in money-laundering investigation. His client was asked to appear before NAB in Saaf Pani inquiry, but was arrested in Aashiana case and later his arrest was made in Ramzan Sugar Mills case, Amjad added.

He argued that as per judgments of the apex court, arrest in a case would be considered arrest in all cases pending before an agency against an accused.

At this, Shahbaz again interrupted the case proceeding, stating that he wanted to say something with the permission of the court. The court allowed him to proceed. Shahbaz said that he had read in Tuesday’s newspaper that the inquiry into Saaf Pani case had been closed.

The judge remarked that what Shahbaz was saying was irrelevant to the case in hand.

The court after hearing arguments of all parties, refused to grant further physical remand of Shahbaz and sent him to jail on judicial remand till Nov 3.

The court also ordered to place proclamation advertisements of Rabia Imran, daughter of Shahbaz Sharif, on her all addresses.

On previous hearing, AC Judge Jawadul Hassan had asked NAB prosecutor that how many times Shahbaz had appeared before the inquiry team.

To which, the prosecutor replied that Shahbaz had appeared before the inquiry team for four times. Then the court had observed that why NAB was seeking further physical remand when it had got answers of the basic questions.

In the reference, NAB had claimed that in the last 30 years, the Shahbaz family assets ballooned from Rs2 million to Rs7,000 million which the family failed to justify.

NAB had nominated Shahbaz Sharif, his wife Nusrat Shahbaz, sons Hamza Shahbaz, Suleman Shahbaz, daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali in the reference. Suleman Shahbaz had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case.

The other nominated accused include Nisar Ahmad, Syed Muhammad Tahir Naqvi, Ali Muhammad Khan, Qasim Qayyum, Rashid Karamat, Masroor Anwar, Muhammad Usman, Fazal Dad Abbasi, Muhammad Shoaib Qamar and Haroon Yousfzai.

NAB also accepted requests from four people for becoming approvers against the Shahbaz family in the reference including Muhammad Mushtaq alias Mushtaq Cheeni, his son Yasir Mushtaq, Shahid Rafique and Aftab Ahmad. It has been learnt that the reference consists of 25,000 pages and 55 volumes.

Later, talking to the media outside the accountability court, Shahbaz Sharif said that Imran Khan had always pursued a policy of revenge. He said Imran Khan was continuing his revengeful operations against the opposition. He strongly condemned the incident happening with PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her husband in Karachi. He said Imran Khan was acting like a fascist and he forgot that how daughters are treated in our society. He said the incumbent government had violated the rights of women by unlawfully breaking into the room of PML-N vice president in Karachi.

He said the country was passing through decisive phase and the government would not be able to continue anymore. He said the PML-N was a party and its workers would stay united and every move to create differences in the PDM would be foiled.

Also, PML-N leader and former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafique said that the government was doing dirty politics on the issue of Nawaz Sharif return to the country.

He said the government was trying to befool the nation by adopting different revengeful tactics against Nawaz Sharif and his family. He said Nawaz Sharif should pay attention to his health first.

He said the government and its policies had become a burden for Pakistanis. He said the results of all parties conference (APC) would be encouraging. He said the Karachi package, announced by the federal government, consisted of the same lies that Imran Khan told to the nation for many years.

“Pakistan’s total development budget is around Rs700 billion. Therefore, where Rs100 billion would come from? Karachi package has been announced but it would not be implemented,” he added.

He said that changing the parliamentary structure was tantamount to changing the structure of the Constitution. He said that the founders of Pakistan chose the parliamentary system for the country and it would prevail.