BOGUS REPORT LEADS TO ANTIGRAFT PROBE AGAINST SHARIF

ISLAMABAD: Almost two years after Pakistan’s central bank dismissed a report that estimated remittances from Pakistan to India at $4.9 billion, the country’s anti-graft watchdog ordered an inquiry against former premier Nawaz Sharif on the basis of a report that cited the old study.

The National Accountability Bureau ordered the inquiry against Sharif and other officials for the alleged laundering of $4.9 billion to India. A NAB statement said the bureau’s chairman had taken notice of a media report that made this claim.

NAB did not name the publication that carried the report but the statement claimed the amount was laundered to India’s finance ministry, leading to a rise in India’s foreign exchange reserves and affecting Pakistan. The report further alleged the money laundering was reflected in the Migration and Remittances Factbook of 2016.

However, the State Bank of Pakistan had in September 2016 rejected the factbook’s claim about remittances of $4.9 billion from Pakistan to India.

The factbook had used a model that mistakenly included people who moved from India to Pakistan during Partition as migrants and came up with an estimate of $4.9 billion as “remittances”.

The State Bank of Pakistan had said in an official statement the study was “clearly flawed” as the people who moved during Partition in 1947 had become citizens of Pakistan. It also rejected “such estimates as these are contrary to facts and do not make sense”.

However, that didn’t prevent NAB from going ahead with an inquiry on alleged money laundering.

SHARIF IS ALSO FACING THREE CORRUPTION CASES IN AN ANTIGRAFT COURT THAT WERE REGISTERED FOLLOWING THE SUPREME COURT’S VERDICT IN THE PANAMA PAPERS CASE.