Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on Accountability, Shahzad Akbar, on Wednesday announced that the government has filed a reference in a Lahore accountability court. It accuses Shahbaz Sharif and his children of laundering money worth Rs7 billion.
Speaking at a press conference, he said opposition parties want a Truth Commission but they should answer to allegations of corruption and money laundering.
He then went on to list the instances of “organised money laundering” as a “birthday gift for Shahbaz Sharif”.
The adviser said Shahbaz and his sons Hamza Shahbaz and Salman Shahbaz “were found involved in money laundering and fake accounts”.
He said the Financial Monitoring Unit had found 177 suspicious transactions of the family and National Accountability Bureau started an investigation in this regard.
The reference comprises 55 volumes and 25,000 pages of documentary evidence including company records, bank statements and foreign remittances.
The record was compiled after a detailed investigation by NAB teams which nominated 16 accused in the reference against six family members and 10 employees.
Four of the accused had turned approvers and they disclosed their role in money laundering by the Sharif family, Akbar said.
“Money laundering worth billions of rupees was done through employees of the companies of Shahbaz and his children,” he added. He accused Shahbaz and his son Hamza Shahbaz of taking kickbacks and commissions in return for giving party tickets and projects to favourites.
“There are three benaami front companies — Good Nature [Trading] Company, Unitas Steel, Nisar Trading Concern — in this reference,” he added.
According to the reference, the Sharif family made use of fake foreign remittances and engaged in “organised money laundering”. Akbar went so far as to claim that Shahbaz was “heading a money laundering wing”.
Shahbaz use the laundered money to pay for the custom duty of an imported land cruiser, two houses in Defence Housing Authority and villas in Whispering Pines, he claimed.
“About Rs9.5 billion were laundered through fake companies and Ramzan Sugar Mills whose employees’ salary was in the thousands of rupees but billions of rupees went through their bank accounts,” he explained.
The adviser said Shahbaz Sharif should provide answers for the “organised money laundering network run by his children from 2008 and 2018”.
Shahbaz should also explain the source of income of his son Salman Shahbaz and son-in-law Ali Imran, now living in London, he asserted. The adviser also spoke about the relationship between Shahbaz and his niece, Maryam, who is also the party’s vice-president.
