NAB hits dead-end in search for Hussain Nawaz's UK bank accounts

By
Murtaza Ali Shah
|
Photo: Geo News file

LONDON: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been relentlessly pursuing the Home Office’s International Criminality Unit under Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) to get details of Hussain Nawaz Sharif’s bank account but it has hit a dead-end.

Documents of official communication between the UK and Pakistan – seen by Geo News – give a clear idea of what Pakistan’s accountability czar wants from the British authorities against Hussain, the eldest son of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

NAB has sent at least seven requests, since June 2017, to the UK Central Authority (UKCA) International Criminality Unit to find Hussain’s account details to help Pakistani authorities with its cases in the accountability courts.

The problem, however, for both the UK and Pakistan arises out of the fact that Hussain has no bank accounts in the UK.

Geo News has seen eight letters written by the UKCA’s International Criminality Unit on November 17, 2017 to Pakistani authorities, confirming that MLA will be accepted in Hussain’s case.

The Home Office then requested the National Crime Agency (NCA) to carry out sweeping searches on Hussain and asked for assistance in locating accounts in Deutsche Bank, UBS, Lloyds TSB Bank, and Halifax. An NCA report has now communicated to the Home Office that Hussain doesn’t hold accounts in any of the aforementioned banks, neither now nor at anytime in the past, a trusted source told Geo.tv.

Letters sent by the NAB to UK’s Home Office – seen by Geo News– show that Pakistan has filed nearly a dozen requests to Britain under the subject “Letter of request for legal assistance in the matter of Hussain Nawaz Sharif” seeking account details in Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Bank, UBS and Halifax and details of any properties and assets that could be linked to Hussain.

In its response to all of the requests by the Pakistani authorities, the caseworker at the Home Office has said that the help will be offered to Pakistan. The response states: “Your request for assistance has been considered and accepted by the UK Central Authority (UKCA) on behalf of the Secretary of State and forwarded to the National Crime Agency (NCA) for execution.”

The letter by the Home Office, written in third week of November last year, asked NAB to notify the Home Office if it did not require assistance, so that the UKCA could close the file and confirm to the NCA.

NAB had responded that it would appreciate assistance and continued to ask for legal assistance.

One letter written by the NAB to UKCA on June 6, 2017 requested the UKCA to provide help in Hassan’s “supplementary case” and it’s not known what this case pertains to.

The MLA request for bank account details was first sought on May 27, 2017. Different letters dated June 6 and June 27 were also sent.

According to UKCA’s findings communicated to Pakistan, Hussain has ownership in the Avenfield flats through an offshore company but has no bank accounts in the UK. NAB has been informed that Hussain never committed any crime in the UK, is not involved in any wrongdoing, and therefore has never been a subject of interest for the authorities. Sources at the NCA, Metropolitan Police, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have confirmed that a criminal or civil case has never been filed against Hussain in the UK.

Hussain’s wife and children are British nationals while Hussain himself carries a Pakistani passport. Editor Investigations at The News, Ansar Abbasi, had earlier reported that the Home Office has agreed to cooperate in the case of Hussain, who is not a British national, but refused to provide any information on Hasan – Nawaz’s youngest son who has lived in the UK for nearly 25 years now as a British national.

Sources have confirmed that the Home Office, the NCA or the CPS have not contacted Hasan or Hussain until now, in relation to the cases in Pakistan, which proves that none of them is of any concern to any of these institutions.

Geo News had earlier reported that a three-member NAB team, headed by Director General NAB Rawalpindi Zahir Shah, reached London on Sunday to get assistance from the UK authorities. Prior to the latest visit, two NAB teams visited London and met the Home Office officials but no actionable evidence has been found yet.

A spokesman of the Pakistan High Commission has said that they had no idea about the presence of a NAB team in London.