Wednesday, July 17, 2019
By
Raees Ansari

NAB orders properties, vehicles of Shehbaz Sharif's family be frozen

By
Raees Ansari
|

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday ordered the properties and two vehicles of Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif's family be frozen.

In a letter to different institutions, the NAB's Lahore chapter wrote about two houses belonging to Sharif — the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — in Lahore's Model Town, namely 87-H and 96-H. Both of these properties were registered in the name of the politician's wife, Nusrat Shehbaz, it added.

In addition, the letter further noted that a nine-Kanal house in Dunga Gali in Ayubia's Galyat area was also registered in Nusrat Shehbaz's name.

Moreover, a plot, cottage, and a villa in Haripur, and two houses in Phase 5 of Lahore's Defence Housing Authority (DHA) were registered in the name of Sharif's second wife, Tehmina Durrani, the letter stated.

The anti-graft watchdog in its letter also mentioned that nine plots in Lahore's Johar Town were registered in the name of Sharif's son, Hamza Shehbaz.

According to the NAB letter, the aforementioned vehicles and properties can neither be sold off nor their ownership transferred to someone else's name.

It is noteworthy that a few days ago, the UK's Daily Mail in a report had suggested that Sharif and his family stole British taxpayers’ money given to Pakistan’s Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) set up to help the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

In a Twitter post on Sunday, the former Punjab chief minister had said he had "decided to file law suit against Daily Mail" over the tabloid's investigative report.

"The fabricated and misleading story was published at the behest of Imran Khan and Shahzad Akbar. We will also launch legal proceedings against them," he had written.

"Btw IK has yet to respond to three such cases I filed against him for defamation," Sharif had added in his tweet.

To seeking remedies, the politician's team was already in the UK, and according to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Sharif would also nominate Prime Minister Imran Khan and the PM's Advisor on Accountability, Shahzad Akbar, in the lawsuit.

Abbasi had said the news report alleged that the Opposition leader had laundered money during former military ruler General (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf's rule.

"If you want to make a case, then you should include Musharraf, as well as EERA, is being funded from his tenure," he had said, adding that the government should hand over the proofs to the NAB.

"NAB should make cases. It's interesting to note that the government has up till now failed to prove corruption until now," he had said.

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