LAHORE: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was handed over to the country’s supreme anti-graft body for questioning in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case by an accountability court here on Friday.
Sharif is already serving a seven-year sentence in another case after he was found guilty of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. He has appealed the verdict, though the apex court is yet to decide his fate in the matter.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which is probing Sharif and his family for corruption and money laundering, took the incarcerated leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) into custody from the Kot Lakhpat Jail and produced him before an accountability court as his supporters and party workers shouted slogans in his favor.
NAB officials claimed Sharif and his family were direct beneficiaries of the mill’s business transactions that were used for money laundering.
According to a report submitted in the court by the bureau, “the evidence collected so far reveals that the accused” was “involved in the acts of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under section 9 (a) of [National Accountability Ordinance] 1999.”
The statement also claimed that Sharif indulged in money laundering worth about Rs2000 million “in connivance with co-accused persons namely Maryam Safdar, Yousaf Abbas and others.”
It is pertinent to mention here that Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, and nephew, Yousaf Abbas, have already been incarcerated in the same case.
Responding to NAB’s allegations, Advocate Amjad Pervaiz, who represents the PML-N leader, called the case “politically motivated.”
“The allegations leveled in the CSM case were part of the Panama case, investigated by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that was constituted on the Supreme Court’s instructions,” he said. “According to Pakistani laws, a person cannot be charged twice in the same case. This is double jeopardy and not legal.”
Sharif himself addressed the court, saying all allegations against him were fabricated since all the assets being investigated by NAB had already been declared.
He derided the anti-graft body, saying it was brought into being by a “dictator” and was used against PML-N leaders and other opposition parties.
Sharif also added he had served the country as prime minister three times and would quit politics if any corruption allegation was proved against him.
PML-N leaders also described court cases against the Sharifs as a diversionary tactic to remove people’s attention from real governance challenges.
“The whole proceeding is based on revenge, not justice,” said the party’s chairman, Raja Zafarul Haq, while talking to Arab News.