ISLAMABAD - Corruption cases framed by National Accountability Bureau against Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, which were adjourned sane die, would remain intact even if the National Accountability Bureau could not get them restored from the division bench of Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, which is an appellate forum for an accountability court.
A few days back an accountability court rejected the plea of National Accountability Bureau to get these cases revived as the ground on which these cases were adjourned sane die no more existed because all the accused in these cases, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his other family members, were all available in Pakistan.
This was stated by legal experts explaining a legal point to remove the confusion associated with the matter. The experts said these cases were adjourned for indefinite period due to unavailability of the accused because Nawaz Sharif along with his family was sent to Saudi Arabia under some arrangement by the then military dictator, Pervez Musharraf. “But as all the accused are very much in the country, there is no reason to deny revival of these cases,” they added.
Clarifying a point, these legal experts were of unanimous view that these cases adjourned sane die could not be eliminated unless and until placed for regular trial. If these cases could not be revived on some pretext even from the appellate bench, a division bench of Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, they would remain very much intact and would be revived at some later stage.
In all, three corruption references were pending with accountability courts against Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf and his family members.
A division bench of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, being an appellate forum for accountability courts, had barred the accountability courts to proceed against Nawaz Sharif and his other family members in these three cases.
All the three cases – Hudaybia Paper Mills, Ittefaq Foundries and Assets Reference – were framed against Nawaz Sharif and his family members after his elected government was dismissed in 1999. The three cases were fixed for trial in Attock Accountability Court where Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif had been detained.
These cases were adjourned sane die when under some clandestine deal Nawaz Sharif and his family members were sent to Saudi Arabia.
These cases were reopened in 2007 when the Supreme Court of Pakistan allowed Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan, but once again he was sent back to Saudi Arabia moments after he landed here at the Islamabad international airport.
The request for the reopening of these cases was again made in 2010 when the then NAB Prosecutor General Dr Danishwar Malik had moved an application seeking their reopening on the plea that the accused had returned to the country.
But the matter once again was disregarded when the Accountability Court Rawalpindi No 1 judge directed the prosecutor general to furnish the request to reopen these cases duly signed by the NAB chairman, but as the slot of the chairman was lying vacant, the court adjourned these cases sine die.
In State vs Hudaybia Paper Mills case, nine members of the Sharif family were accused of committing a corruption of Rs 642.743 million. As per the NAB allegations, the accused had secured loan against Hudaybia Paper Mills, but used this money to return the loans of the other companies owned by the Sharif family.
Mian Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar (mother of Nawaz Sharif), Sabiha Abbas, Maryam Safdar and Ishaq Dar were the accused in this reference.
In State vs Ittefaq Foundries case, Nawaz Sharif, his brother Abbas Sharif and Kamal Qureshi were charged with the willful default of Rs 1.06 billion. The main allegation against the accused in this case was that M/s Ittefaq Foundries Ltd obtained cash finance from the National Bank. As per the NAB allegations, the company willfully defaulted to pay back the amount in 1994.
The State vs Nawaz Sharif etc case is about the Raiwind assets. The main allegation in this reference is that the accused had acquired vast tracts of land on which a number of palatial houses and mansions were constructed with pecuniary resources that appeared to be grossly disproportionate to their known sources of income. As per the NAB allegations, there involves an amount of Rs 247.352 million in the matter. Apart from Nawaz Sharif, his mother was also an accused in this case.