Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Shehzad Akbar Monday challenged former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif to file a lawsuit against him in a London court after publication of a story by the Daily Mail exposing alleged corruption and money laundering by the Sharif family.
Speaking at a press conference here, he said the Daily Mail, in its investigative report, revealed about the fake telegraphic transfers and money laundering from multiple accounts by Shehbaz Sharif and members of his family. He said since the Panama Papers case, the Sharif family has not given specific answers to the allegations leveled against them. He said the picture showed by Marriyum Aurangzeb in her press conference featuring British journalist David Rose was taken at the time of last elections.
Shehzad Akbar said according to the Financial Monitoring Unit of the State Bank of Pakistan, the Sharif family made some 200 remittances amounting to $26 million since 2007. He said Hamza Sharif is in the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and during his investigation it was proved that the money was laundered through telegraphic transfers, 99 percent of which were fake. Shehbaz Sharif, his son Salman Shehbaz and other members of the family are absconders, he alleged.
He claimed that 90 percent of the money held by the wife of Shehbaz Sharif had come through remittances. The Sharif family, he said, made 36 companies with the seed money that had come through remittances from abroad.
According to the Daily Mail’s story, 200 million pound came in the bank accounts of Shehbaz Sharif and his family members through fake telegraphic transfers that were made by the persons like Manzoor Paparwala, he said. The family of Shehbaz Sharif, he said, established fake companies and the money was remitted to them through dubious bank accounts. He alleged that Ali Imran, son-in-law of Shehbaz Sharif, embezzled the funds of Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) given to him by Finance Director of ERRA Naveed Ikram, who in a plea bargain with NAB admitted that he had embezzled Rs 499 million. Later, NAB also made recoveries from Naveed Ikram as he had accumulated wealth amounting to Rs 1 billion, he added.
Shehzad Akbar said corruption was also done in the case of Saaf Pani Company in Punjab and from that money, Ali Imran constructed a commercial plaza in Lahore, which was later confiscated by the NAB. He said Asif Ali Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif adopted the same way of transferring money through telegraphic transfers using four similar companies.
Shehbaz Sharif, he said, with the money remitted from abroad bought houses in Murree, Model Town Lahore and Defence Housing Authority, which will be confiscated after the conclusion of cases in courts, and the money recovered will be spent on the people’s welfare through the Ehsaas Programme. He said the rebuttal made by Department of International Development (DFID) of United Kingdom about the Daily Mail’s story is about the effectiveness of its system to stop wrongdoings.
He said the government will expand the Ehsaas Programme by broadening the tax base and increasing the number of taxpayers to facilitate the poor people. He said austerity will be observed during the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the United States.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that Rs 80 million cheque donated by UK Aid was directly deposited in the personal account of son-in-law of Shehbaz Sharif.
In a tweet, she said that Ikram Naveed, an officer of Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) had admitted the crime in his affidavit during the plea bargain. She said that the spokespersons of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are trying to mislead the people by telling lies but soon they will stop defending them as the list of money laundering and corruption of Shehbaz Sharif and sons is very long. “If Shehbaz Sharif, his sons and son-in-law are innocent, why they have escaped from the country,” she asked.
