Broadsheet judgment ‘clean chit’ for Sharifs: Hussain

LONDON: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz has said Sir Anthony Evan’s judgment in the Broadsheet vs the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) case is a “clean chit” for the Sharif family as the judgment clearly states that the Broadsheet hired the Matrix Research Limited to investigate assets of the Sharif family but found nothing.

In a statement, he said Matrix investigated Nawaz Sharif and eight members of his family for a year soon after the NAB signed a contract with the Broadsheet but in the end nothing illegal was found.

He said Sir Anthony’s judgment is a “clean chit” for the Sharif family. He challenged the government of Pakistan to show proof of corruption or illegality before the UK government or any other government anywhere. He said the fact that nothing was found in the UK during the Broadsheet probe or Panama investigations proved that foreign governments don’t believe in the lies told on Pakistani media about Nawaz Sharif and his family.

On the other hand, Hussain Nawaz claimed that the ministers and friends of PM Imran Khan are deep down in real corruption and there are proof available of their corruption but there is no accountability for them. He said Faisal Vawda owns 19 undeclared properties in London but there is no accountability for him and many others like him.

Mark Bezant of the FTI consulting and Yasir Dajani of the same firm were appointed by the NAB to comment on the SF forensic report which is essentially related to the Sharif family and matters arising out of the report of the JIT.

Bezant was instructed by the NAB to consider and comment on the SF report, so his evidence was confined to matters relating to the Sharif family, specifically the identification and valuation of the relevant assets. The SF report resulted in identifying 76 items from the JIT report that were considered potentially recoverable assets of the Sharif family, Hussain said.

He said the NAB representative contended that there were four items of double counting totaling $41m which the SF report had not taken into account, further contending that liabilities of property owning companies including mortgages were not taken into account. He said Bezant contended that the list of 76 items of property included funds no longer recoverable from the Sharif family, affecting 69 of the 76 items in the SF report and as much as 98% of the total value. He said the NAB representative estimated that the Broadsheet lost revenue was between $2.9m and $2.3m. Hussain said: “The point is that the NAB firstly contributed to the preparation of the JIT report.” He said Nawaz Sharif was ousted on the basis of Iqama and not over corruption because nothing was found against him.