ISLAMABAD - National Accountability Bureau will file three corruption references in Accountability Courts against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, his two sons, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, his son, Muftah Ismail and officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
NAB Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal gave approval to in this regard during a meeting held at the NAB headquarters here yesterday.
He approved the first reference against Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, Salman Shehbaz Sharif and others in accumulation of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income to the tune of Rs 7328 million.
The proceedings of investigation have revealed that Shahbaz Sharif and his co-accused family members, benamidars, frontmen, accumulated assets disproportionate to their known sources of income to the tune of Rs. 7328 million.
For the said assets, the accused persons laundered their disproportionate funds under the garb of foreign remittances and loans, which have been proved to be fake. The accused persons were also operating benami companies held in the names of their employees and associates to place the proceeds of crimes for their own benefits. The Chairman NAB also approved to file a supplementary reference against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,
ex-prime minister, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, Muftah Ismail, ex Chairman SSGC Board, Sheikh Imran ul Haq, ex-CEO of EETPL & MD PSO Agha Jan Akhtar, ex-Chairman PQA, Saeed Ahmed Khan, ex-Chairman OGRA, Aamir Naseem, ex-Member Oil OGRA, Uzma Adil Khan, ex-Chairperson OGRA, Shahid M. Islam, ex-MD PSO, Husain Dawood, Chairman, Engro Corporation Limited, Abdul Samad Dawood, Director Engro Corporation Limited and others.
The accused are facing the charges of awarding the LNG Terminal-1 contract through a non-transparent process. They misused their authority in active connivance with each other to give wrongful gains of Rs 14.146 billion to EETL/ETPL/ECL in connection with the LNG Terminal-1 of EETL and also caused a loss of Rs. 7.438 billion for non-utilization of unused capacity of 2nd LNG Terminal of PGPL from March, 2015 till September 2019. Hence, a total liability becomes Rs. 21.584 billion till September, 2019.
In this respect, it is pertinent to mention here that further loss to be incurred for next 10 years will amount to Rs. 47 billion as the said contract will expire on March, 2029. During the period, unexplained deposits of Rs. 1.426 billion were received in the accounts of Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi and Rs. 1.294 billion were received in the bank accounts of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the period from 2013 to 2017, during which the LNG Terminal deal was struck. By concealing the origin of the deposits and layering, the accused also committed offence of money laundering.
The third reference has been approved against officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the sale of Embassy of Pakistan at Jakarta, Indonesia. During the period from 2001-2002, Major General (Retd) Syed Mustafa Anwar Hussain while posted as Ambassador of Pakistan at Jakarta sold out the building of Pakistan Embassy in Jakarta at a throwaway price through a non-transparent procedure and without lawful authority. The accused thereby caused a loss of $1.32 million.