Tag: Shehbaz Sharif

  • Accountability court indicts Shehbaz Sharif’s wife in money laundering case

    Accountability court indicts Shehbaz Sharif’s wife in money laundering case

    An accountability court in Lahore indicated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif’s wife Nusrat Shehbaz in money laundering case reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), reports Dawn.

    During the hearing, Judge Naseem Virk indicted Sharif’s wife who is currently residing in London. NAB prosecutor Usman Rashid Cheema was also present there.

    Shehbaz Sharif’s plea for exemption from appearance got accepted as he has been advised complete rest by doctors after he slipped from the stairs.

    The hearing was adjourned till October 18.

    Following the decision by British National Crime Agency (NCA) about unfreezing of Sharif and his family’s bank accounts, NAB sources had claimed that the money laundering case is very different from it.

    Last year in August, NAB had filed before an accountability court a Rs8 billion reference of money laundering against Shehbaz, his wife, his two sons and other family members.

    Some sources had claimed that NAB Lahore investigated the assets of Sharif’s family through money laundering and fake foreign telegraphic transfers. 

  • Summary being prepared for NAB chief extension

    Summary being prepared for NAB chief extension

    The Ministry of Law and Justice has reportedly been preparing a summary to send to the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan regarding the extension of sitting Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (redtd) Javed Iqbal, reported Malik Asad for Dawn.

    The four-year term of Justice Iqbal as NAB chairman will expire this month. A senior official of the ministry has confirmed that they will send the proposal to the PM soon.

    However, the government hasn’t taken a final decision yet. According to an official, in the proposal, the declaration of an ordinance for giving extension has been suggested.

    “In case the PM decides to grant an extension to the chairman, the law ministry will draft an ordinance to amend the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) and forward it to the president,” the sources said.

    If PM agrees, an amendment will be made in sub-section b of Section 6, which states, “There shall be a Chairman NAB to be appointed by the President in consultation with the [Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly] for a [non-extendable] period of [four] years on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the President and shall not be removed except on the grounds of removal of Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

    Earlier, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said, “The government has decided not to consult Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif for the appointment of NAB chairman since he (Sharif) is accused in several corruption references filed by the bureau.”

    Later, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari tweeted that PPP will forcefully oppose the illegal extension in the tenure of chairman NAB.

  • VIDEO: Heated argument between PTI’s Shahbaz Gill and anchor Kamran Shahid

    VIDEO: Heated argument between PTI’s Shahbaz Gill and anchor Kamran Shahid

    Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM), Dr Shahbaz Gill, alleged that anchorperson Kamran Shahid was asked to spread fake news and misquote facts about the United Kingdom’s (UK) court order to unfreeze Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his family’s bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering. A heated exchange took place between the two on Dunya News‘ programme, ‘On the Front with Kamran Shahid’.

    Gill started off by reading a few statements by Kamran Shahid and gave details of the statements, which as per him were fake news and were factually incorrect.

    Gill’s comments led to a heated exchange of words between Gill and Kamran.

    “Sir, no one can make me misquote statements, not the prime minister or Azhar Javed [UK-based journalist working for Dunya News],” replied Kamran Shahid.

    “You cannot say that I misquote my facts. I have been in journalism for the past 15 years. I am not indulging in any personal attacks against you and neither should you. No one can make me say things that are factually incorrect, not PM Imran Khan, not Shehbaz Sharif, no one,” added Shahid.

    “You are wrong here, no one has the courage to make me misquote my statements or facts. Refrain from doing this.”

    “Let the masses decide about your statements, seems like you are running for an election,” said Gill in response to Shahid’s answer.

    “I have the right to judge the prime minister, he is my PM as well. I supported him long before your [Shahbaz Gill] career as a politician started in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI),” said Shahid.

    “You have a fascist regime, your party is monitoring everything, you all do one-sided reporting on Pakistan Television Network (PTV), there is no mention of the Opposition in their reporting. If you so highly support journalism why haven’t you made media independent from the information ministry,” said Shahid.

    Shahid added, “PM promised in my show that he will raise the standard of PTV like that of the BBC, now should I say the PM lied?”

  • Video: ‘International sadiq, ameen’, Shehbaz gives high-five to Maryam Nawaz

    Video: ‘International sadiq, ameen’, Shehbaz gives high-five to Maryam Nawaz

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his niece Maryam Nawaz share a light-hearted moment.

    In the video, Shehbaz can be seen sitting in the front seat of a car with the door open. Maryam walks up to him and says: “Congratulations uncle. Allah has made you an international sadiq (honest) and ameen ( trustworthy).”

    Shehbaz laughs and the two then high-five.

    Maryam’s comments come after a United Kingdom (UK) court ordered to unfreeze Shehbaz Sharif and his family’s bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering.

    UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) had conducted a 17-month long probe in which it examined Shehbaz Sharif’s financial transactions over the past 20 years. It said that no evidence of money laundering or criminal activities against the PML-N president or his family was found.

  • ‘Spent millions of rupees to defame me, NAB-Niazi nexus is a fixed match’: Shehbaz Sharif

    Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif, in a press conference, said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Niazi [Imran Khan] nexus is a fixed match and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is also working on the government’s directions.

    Talking about UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) recent decision to unfreeze Sharif’s and his family account, he stated, “I was sent to jail twice during the last three years. The government failed to prove corruption against me and my children so they approached the agency.”

    He claimed that the PTI-led government has been levelling fake allegations against him and his family for last over three years and said that the rulers had only wasted the nation’s time. “Those who are pretending themselves to be Sadiq and Ameen spent millions of rupees to defame me” he added.

    According to him, the UK agency had asked the court that they wanted to end investigations and the UK court approved the request, as per Geo.

    Earlier, the UK court had ordered the unfreezing of bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering.

    Defamation case against Daily Mail

    About the defamation case against UK’s newspaper, he clarified that he lodged a defamation case against the Daily Mail and asked it to provide evidence against him. But the Daily Mail is yet to submit evidence in the case.

    In 2019, renowned media law firm Carter-Ruck sued British newspaper The Mail on Sunday, online news site Mail Online and its journalist David Rose on behalf of Shehbaz Sharif for publishing a “politically motivated” article. 

  • Govt vs PML-N: Clash over UK’s unfreezing of Shehbaz’s accounts

    Govt vs PML-N: Clash over UK’s unfreezing of Shehbaz’s accounts

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders have said that the government’s claims that it was not involved or pursuing the money laundering cases against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif have been exposed. 

    Addressing a press conference, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said, “The government had embarrassed itself in front of the world with the National Crime Agency (NCA) probe.”

    “The standard set by this government, when it comes to lying, is totally unique. The prime minister of this country, in his own office, creates an Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) that has no legal basis. And what has that ARU done?” Abbasi questioned. 

    “Time and again, the NCA told the court that it has the complete support and cooperation of the Pakistani government and its agencies,” added Abbasi.

    PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the government is failing the masses as it is busy registering fake cases against the Opposition. “However, your failure is becoming a matter of life and death for the public,” he said.

    PML-N leader Atta Tarar on Tuesday shared on Twitter the letter written by the office of the prime minister’s adviser on accountability to the NCA in the UK.

    “For [three] years [you] have levelled false allegations; ARU’s letter to NCA written on December 11, 2019, by your office is attached,” Tarar wrote, addressing Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar, whose office had sent the letter to NCA.

    However, in a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar pointed out that there was no asset freezing order (AFO) against Shehbaz in the UK.

     He also shared the document on Twitter and said: “Cheap tricks won’t work. Shehbaz still need[s] to answer in courts in Pakistan.”

  • British court orders unfreezing of Shehbaz Sharif, son’s UK bank accounts

    British court orders unfreezing of Shehbaz Sharif, son’s UK bank accounts

    A United Kingdom (UK) court has ordered to unfreeze Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his family’s bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering, reported Geo News.

    The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) unfroze the bank accounts of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and those of his son, Suleman Shehbaz, on Monday.

    The NCA had conducted a 17-month long probe in which it examined Shehbaz Sharif’s financial transactions over the past 20 years. It said that no evidence of money laundering or criminal activities against the PML-N president or his family was found.

    The UK’s top anti-corruption agency filed a unilateral application before Judge Rimmer to declare that its two-year high-profile investigation in the jurisdictions of Pakistan, UK, and Dubai found no evidence of money laundering and criminal conduct on part of the two Sharifs who were investigated. 

    The NCA had initiated the probe after Pakistan’s Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) had shared evidence with the UK crime agency.

    After the Westminster Magistrates Court allowed the accounts to be frozen and issued a probe consent to the NCA on December 19, 2019, Suleman Shehbaz’s declared Barclays account, Shehbaz Sharif’s HBL UK and Barclays account were immediately probed, seized and monies were frozen.

    Usually, anti-money laundering investigations go back only six years, but in this case, the NCA used its excessive powers and investigated Shehbaz Sharif and his son’s transactions dating back to around 20 years.

    NCA’s investigators started the probe from the first flat that Shehbaz Sharif bought in 2004 on Edgware Road when he was in exile and asked him to produce evidence of the clean origin of the money, including mortgage payments, sources of proceeds in his accounts, salaries and dividends, and full proceeds of the property purchase in the UK bought during exile.

    The NCA investigated Suleman Shehbaz’s Barclays account declared in Pakistan with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and looked into all transfers that were made from Pakistan after the State Bank of Pakistan’s approval. The NCA went through each receipt of transfers from the official money exchangers.

    The court documents obtained by this correspondent from credible sources show that the NCA received a letter from the ARU on December 11, 2019, in which it levelled allegations of criminal conduct against Shehbaz Sharif and Suleman Shehbaz.

    The government of Pakistan had requested the UK government to seize all assets and funds of Shehbaz Sharif and his family and asked them to return the same to Pakistan and extradite Suleman Shehbaz with his family.

    Advisor to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said that reports of Shehbaz Sharif being acquitted by the British court were incorrect, clarifying that neither had the ARU nor NAB requested the UK government to initiate a probe against the PML-N leader.

    “[These transactions] were declared as a suspicious transaction by the UK authorities and the NCA secured an asset freezing order(AFO) from the court against these funds,” he tweeted.

    “The news about the alleged acquittal of Shehbaz Sharif or his son Suleman run by one news channel is incorrect and misreporting. It was a result of a suspicious transaction reported by a bank to NCA. The investigation by the NCA against Suleman Shehbaz and some of his family members was not initiated at the request of Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) or National Accountability Bureau (NAB),” tweeted Akbar, who had been keeping a low profile for the last couple of months.

    PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said: “The UK court’s decision has unequivocally exonerated Shehbaz Sharif and his family of all malicious and vexatious claims of corruption and money laundering by Imran Khan. The NCA conducted a 21-month global investigation spanning across a 20-year timeframe whilst overcoming unprecedented jurisdictional challenges.”

    “Never in the history of Pakistan has such a public office-holder been subjected to global scrutiny and multi-jurisdictional probing. Imran Khan has been exposed as a charlatan, willing to malign and assassinate characters of honest public office-holders. False corruption narrative exposed as nothing more than a smokescreen and Imran Khan to be an unscrupulous ringmaster of a circus built on incompetence, deceit and stained by the indignation of the innocent and the poor,” she said.

  • ‘Arab rulers who presented gifts to PM Khan didn’t want their names to be made public’: Fawad

    Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry recently revealed that Arab rulers who presented gifts to the Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan “did not want their names to be made public”.

    While speaking on Geo News programme ‘Jirga’ with senior journalist Saleem Safi on Sunday, Fawad stated, “Previously, the heads of the government were allowed to take gifts after paying 15 per cent of the actual price.”

    “Vehicles were considered personal gifts, but former president Asif Ali Zardari changed the law for personal interest,” he added while criticising the past governments.

    Talking about the local elections in the country, the minister admitted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s biggest failure was “not holding local body elections” in Pakistan. Moreover, he said that the local bodies, formed by former Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif, were not effective and could not be restored on a technical basis.

    He added that PM insisted on having elections but members within the party, including Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, didn’t agree to it.

    He further said that a review petition against the restoration of the local bodies is being heard in the Supreme Court (SC).

    Chaudhry said that the government has no personal rivalry with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) but the election body directly attacked the PM during the Senate polls.

    Furthermore, he revealed a total of 0.6 million Election Voting Machines (EVM) will be required for the upcoming general elections of 2023.

    Previously, the federal government denied giving out information about the exchange of gifts between the premier and other heads of state. They mentioned in a notice that the matter is reflective of inter-state relations and the disclosure of such information potentially damages the interest of Pakistan in the context of international relations.

  • Dengue on the rise in Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif urges govt to protect people

    Ninety-two cases of dengue have been reported in Punjab in the last 24 hours, Dawn has reported. Of those 92 cases, 64 cases were reported from Lahore. As per the details, 828 cases of dengue virus have been reported in Punjab, and 687 in Lahore.

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif has urged the government to implement dengue control guidelines to protect people.

    “Dengue is spreading & people are getting infected. I would ask the government to implement the dengue control guidelines & protocols that are already in place to mitigate the threat. People’s lives are precious and every measure should be adopted to protect them from dengue,” Shehbaz wrote in a tweet.

    In 2019, more than 8,670 cases of dengue were recorded in Punjab alone with over 50,000 reported from all over Pakistan.

  • Daily Mail yet to submit evidence in Shehbaz Sharif’s defamation case

    Daily Mail yet to submit evidence in Shehbaz Sharif’s defamation case

    The Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publishers of The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, are yet to submit evidence in Shehbaz Sharif’s defamation case after seven months of delay, reports Murtaza Ali Shah for Geo News.

    Earlier this year in February, Justice Sir Matthew Nicklin of the London High Court ruled that the article by reporter David Rose carried the highest level of defamation (Chase level 1 – the highest form of defamation in English law) against both Shehbaz Sharif and his son-in-law Ali Imran Yousaf.

    The Daily Mail has asked for three extensions, citing [previous] continuing travel restrictions and Pakistan’s Red listing as its team was unable to visit Pakistan to collect evidence, as per sources. However, now that the ban has been lifted, the Mail’s lawyer’s third extension is going to end in a few days.

    In July 2019, renowned media law firm Carter-Ruck sued British newspaper The Mail on Sunday, online news site Mail Online and its journalist David Rose on behalf of Shehbaz Sharif for publishing a “politically motivated” article. The story, published on July 14, 2019, had suggested that Shehbaz and his son-in-law Ali Imran Yousaf “stole British taxpayers’ money” given to Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) set up to help the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.