Nawaz Sharif’s sons get 30 days to appear before antigraft court

LAHORE: Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons have been given 30 days to appear before the Islamabad Accountability Court in the Panama Papers case failing which they will be declared proclaimed offenders, the country’s anti-graft body said today.

The process of issuing red warrants for Hassan and Hussain, who are in the UK along with their ailing mother Kulsoom, will begin after the completion of one month if they did not appear before the accountability court in three corruption and money laundering cases, according to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The court is trying Hussain and Hassan along with their father Nawaz Sharif, sister Maryam and brother-in-law captain (retired) Muhammad Safdar in corruption cases filed against them by the NAB on the Supreme Court’s instruction in the Panama Papers case.

They have been given a 30-day deadline (till November 10) to appear before the court and the copies of the notice have been pasted at the Model Town and Jati Umra Raiwind residences of the Sharif family, it said.

Sharif’s sons will be declared proclaimed offenders and their properties attached if they failed to meet the deadline, the NAB said. On the other hand, Hussain and Hassan have decided not to join the proceedings of the corruption cases against them. Hassan and Hussain have chosen to invoke their British citizenship in order to skip court.