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NAB court to hear case against Nawaz on Dec 5

By admin | November 27, 2007

ISLAMABAD: A National Accountability Court (NAB) will take up corruption cases against brothers Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif in Rawalpindi on Dec 5,” a senior NAB official confirmed.

Deputy Prosecutor General Zulfiqar Bhutta said the cases against the Sharifs were activated in August this year before Nawaz Sharif had made his failed attempt to return from exile in September. Interestingly, the warrants of arrest issued against Sharif before his September 10 landing in Islamabad are still valid and Sharif can be arrested if the NAB so wanted.”I have no idea whether NAB chairman has withdrawn the arrest warrants or not,” the deputy prosecutor general told The News.

“Nawaz Sharif may appear before the court when the Rawalpindi Accountability Court No 4 takes up one of the cases in the first week of the coming month,” one PML-N leader said when contacted.

“The arrest warrants are valid though there is no sign of any action against the Sharifs after their return on Sunday, and so far the warrants have not been served,” a NAB official told The News.The NAB Chairman, Naweed Ahsan, while exercising his discretionary powers under the NAB Ordinance, had issued the arrest warrants which he is yet to withdraw, the same official said.

NAB is in complete darkness over how to handle these warrants in the wake of the return of the Sharif brothers. “Neither have we been asked to pursue these warrants nor to withdraw them,” the official said.

The cases against the Sharifs were reopened after Nawaz’s homecoming announcement in August this year. They do not fall under the ambit of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), as all these were established after 1999. There are three NAB cases against the Sharif brothers and their families before the accountability court.

Interestingly NAB officials had read out the arrest warrants to Nawaz Sharif on September 10 at the airport but he was not arrested. Instead, he was sent back into exile.The three cases pertain to the Hudaibia paper mills, Ittefaq Foundry and illegal assets in Raiwind and were registered in 2000. Nine persons were nominated in the Hudaibia paper mills case. They are the late Mian Muhammad Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, widow of Mian Muhammad Sharif, Mian Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar, Sabiha Abbas wife of Mian Abbas Sharif and Mariam Safdar. NAB Chairman Naveed Ahsan, who issued the arrest warrants of the Sharifs, continued to avoid calls when The News repeatedly tried to contact him to seek his comment.

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