NAB to reinvestigate Ishaq Dar in Hudaibiya Paper Mills case

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will reinvestigate Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, the anti-graft body said in a press statement on Wednesday.

NAB is initiating reinvestigations into the case to fulfil legal requirements in the light of a Supreme Court verdict, the statement read.

The apex court, in its verdict on review petitions in the Panama Papers case, had directed the anti-graft body to reopen Hudaibiya case in a week, at which NAB officials had assured of filing an appeal in the case.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, a couple of days ago, had constituted a three-member bench for hearing Hudaibiya case against Sharif brothers on the NAB's appeal.

NAB's appeal

On September 20, NAB had filed the appeal in the Supreme Court against the LHC decision, naming former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his brothers Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and late Abbas Sharif, their mother Shamim Akhter, Shehbaz's son and MNA Hamza Shehbaz, Nawaz's daughter Maryam, and others as respondents.

It had pleaded the Supreme Court to dismiss the LHC decision to quash the case and order a reinvestigation into the scam as per the new evidence, which surfaced in the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report.

Hudaibiya Paper Mills case

The Hudaibiya Paper Mills was allegedly used as a cover by the Sharif family to launder money outside the country in the 1990s.

It was in relation to this case that the Sharif family's trusted aide, Ishaq Dar, recorded a confessional statement on April 25, 2000 in front of a magistrate in Lahore accepting his role in laundering money.

On the basis of that confession, a reference was filed by the NAB in 2000 before an accountability court against the Hudaibiya Paper Mills, three Sharif brothers, Dar and others.

Dar was not charged as he had become an approver in the case for the prosecution.

That reference was struck down by a referee judge of the Lahore High Court on March 11, 2014 in response to a writ petition filed in 2011 stating that Dar's confession was coerced.

Dar had claimed that he had made the 'confession' in duress and disowned the statement.