Pak's anti-graft watchdog files 4 cases against Sharifs

Islamabad :  Pakistan’s anti-graft watchdog today filed four corruption cases against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his three children and finance minister Ishaq Dar in compliance with the Supreme Court’s verdict in the high-profile Panama Papers case.

The cases have been initiated after the Supreme Court on July 28 disqualified 67-year-old Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the scandal. Those named in the cases include Sharif, his sons Hasan and Hussain, daughter Maryam, son-in-law Muhammad Safdar and the finance minister.

The apex court had tasked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to register corruption cases against him, his children, son-in-law and Dar within six weeks. “The references were prepared on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the Joint Investigation Team (set up by the Supreme Court) in its report and any other material collected by the NAB during the course of investigation,” the NAB said.

The cases have been filed with anti-corruption court of Rawalpindi-Islamabad following the court orders before the end of the deadline on September 8, a NAB official said. The cases were approved yesterday by NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry at special meeting of the senior officials. One of the cases against Sharif, his children and Safdar is about purchase of four luxury flats in Park Lane area of London.

The second one against Sharif and his son Hussain is about setting up of Azizia Steel Company and Hill Metal Company. The third case is against Sharif and his two sons and is related to several private companies set up by the family and which have already been identified in the judgement of the court.

The fourth case is against Dar for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. The accused may be sentenced to several years in jail and could be permanently disqualified for any public office if proved guilty. Yesterday, cricketer-turned-politician and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan demanded the arrest of the Sharifs and Dar, saying that the finance minister should leave his office immediately after the approval of the case.

The ruling PML-(N) party has already rejected the JIT report and claimed to have pointed out over 50 mistakes in the report, saying it will challenge the report in the apex court.