Sharif, family fail to appear before anti-graft panel

lahore — For the third consecutive time, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his sons on Tuesday failed to appear before the country’s top anti-graft body which is to interrogate them over the money laundering and corruption charges revealed by the Panama Papers.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had issued summons to Sharif and his sons — Hussain and Hasan, daughter Maryam, son-inlaw Capt. (retd) Safdar and finance minister Ishaq Dar — to interrogate them in its Lahore office in connection with their offshore properties revealed by the Panama Papers case.

The watchdog, irked over the Sharif family’s non-cooperation, was considering writing to the interior ministry to place their names on

My family members and I will join the naB investigation once the supreme Court decides my review petition against my disqualification Nawaz Sharif, deposed prime minister

the Exist Control List (ECL), stopping them from leaving the country.

A senior NAB official said that Sharif, his sons, daughter, son-inlaw and the finance minister were summoned to appear before the NAB but none of them turned up.

He said Sharif and his two sons failed to appear before the NAB for the third consecutive time while Maryam and Dar for the second and first time respectively.

The official further said the NAB would write to interior ministry to put Sharif and his family on ECL if they continued to evade the investigation.

Sharif, his children and his sonin-law were summoned in a case that primarily revolves around Maryam being a beneficiary of offshore firms.

Dar was summoned for exorbitant increase in his assets from 2008 to 2009 which was pointed out in the report of Joint Investigation Team constituted by the Supreme Court to investigate the Panama Papers case.

Earlier, Sharif and his sons were summoned on Friday in a separate case involving graft and money laundering charges but they did not appear before the NAB. On last Sunday Sharif, his sons, daughter and son-in-law failed to appear before it. Sharif, in a letter to NAB, has said he would join its investigation after a decision by the Supreme Court on his review petition against its July 28 verdict which disqualified him from the office of the prime minister.

“My family members and I will join the NAB investigation once the Supreme Court decides my review petition against my disqualification,” Sharif had said in the letter.