Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) approved three corruption references on Tuesday pertaining to the accumulation of assets beyond known means against members of the Sharif family, alongwith corruption in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and non-transparent dealings in the LNG-1 contract.
Chairperson of the anti-graft watchdog, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, approved the three references implicating various stalwarts of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, a former ambassador of Pakistan, and current and former officials of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, Pakistan State Oil and others.
The first reference is against Shahbaz Sharif, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Salman Shahbaz Sharif and others, pertaining to accumulation of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income to the tune of Rs7,328 million.
According to NAB, the proceedings of the investigation thus far have revealed that Shahbaz Sharif and his co-accused family members, benamidars, frontmen, accumulated assets beyond known means of income.
The anti-graft watchdog claims that for the said assets, accused persons laundered their disproportionate funds under the garb of foreign remittances, loans, which have been proved to be fake/fictitious. The accused persons were also operating benami companies held in the name of their employees/associates to place the proceeds of crimes for their own benefits, claims the bureau.
The second reference pertains to corruption and corrupt practices in the sale of the Embassy of Pakistan building in Jakarta, Indonesia, has been approved against officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. NAB claims that during the period of 2001-02, Major General (retd) Syed Mustafa Anwar, who was at the time the Ambassador of Pakistan in Jakarta, sold the Pakistani embassy building at “a throwaway price”.
The bureau alleges that this was done by the then ambassador through a non-transparent procedure without lawful authority. According to NAB, Anwar caused a loss of 1.32 million US dollars.
Meanwhile, the third reference is against former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail, former chairperson of the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited board Sheikh Imranul Haq, former chief executive officer of Engro Elengy Terminal Private Limited and PSO managing director Agha Jan Akhtar, former chairperson of Port Qasim Authority Brig. (Retd) Saeed Ahmed Khan, former chairperson of OGRA Aamir Naseem, former oil member at OGRA Uzma Adil Khan, former chairperson OGRA Shahid M Islam, former managing director PSO Husain Dawood, Chairperson Engro Abdul Samad Dawood, the director of Engro and others.
