The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore has decided to freeze industries belonging to family members of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in the assets beyond means case, a private TV channel reported on Monday.
Chiniot Power Limited, Ramzan Energy Limited, Al-Arabia Sugar Mills, Crystal Plastics Private Limited, Sharif Dairy Farms Private Limited and Sharif Poultry Farms Private Limited are included in the industries ordered to be frozen in separate orders issued by chief of NAB’s Lahore chapter on Monday.
NAB Lahore DG Shahzad Saleem directed the authorities concerned including the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to implement the orders with immediate effect.
Shehbaz Shraif, Hamza Shehbaz, Sulaiman Shehbaz and Nusrat Shehbaz will not be able to receive any benefit from the aforementioned industries following the anti-graft body’s move. Members of the Sharif family and their financial advisers were also given the copies of the directives.
“Such jabs at Shehbaz Sharif are the worst kind of smear campaign being run after failing miserably to find any dirt on him,” a statement issued by the PML-N said on Monday. “Shehbaz does not own any shares in any single of these companies. Despite the worst political victimisation in the history of Pakistan by this imposed regime, they have been unable to indict Shehbaz in a single case of corruption,” it maintained.
“The PMLN president was in judicial as well as NAB’s custody for the longest time and after endless inquiries and exhaustive investigations, they could not find anything against him. During his tenure, Shehbaz implemented projects worth billions of rupees. These included mega projects of energy, communication, health, education and public transport,” the statement read. “The entire record is with Punjab and the federal governments and not a single rupee corruption has been established so far,” it went on to say. “These companies have been working since 1980s. Shehbaz Sharif has neither been a director or shareholder in any of these businesses nor has he drawn any dividends from those,” he said. “NAB is not only launching a victimisation campaign based on lies but is also overstepping its jurisdiction,” it said. “This is the extreme level of political victimisation where private businesses are being subjected to the worst form of harassment. All this is just another episode of the maligning strategy by the failed incompetent regime,” it concluded.
