ISLAMABAD-National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal has approved filing three corruption references in different Accountability Courts.
According to the NAB spokesman on Tuesday, the first reference has been approved against Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Muhammad Hamza Shehbaz, Salman Shehbaz and others in accumulation of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income to the tune of Rs7,328 million.
The proceedings of investigation have revealed that accused Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and his co-accused family members, benamidars, frontmen, accumulated assets disproportionate to their known sources of income to the tune of Rs7,328 million.
For the said assets, accused persons laundered their disproportionate funds under the garb of foreign remittances, loans, which have been proved to be fake/fictitious. The accused persons were also operating benami companies held in the name of their employees/ associates to place the proceeds of crimes for their own benefits.
The second reference has been approved against officers/officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others regarding corruption and corrupt practices in sale of Embassy of Pakistan at Jakarta, Indonesia. During the period from 2001 to 2002, Major General (Retd) Syed Mustafa Anwar Hussain while posted as ambassador of Pakistan to Jakarta, Indonesia sold out building of Pakistan embassy at Jakarta at throw away price through non transparent procedure and without lawful authority. The accused thereby caused loss of US$ 1.32 million.
Likewise, a s supplementary reference has been approved against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ex-prime minister, his son Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi, Miftah Ismail, ex-chairman of SSGC Board, Sheikh Imran ul Haq, ex-CEO of EETPL and MD of PSO, Agha Jan Akhtar, ex-chairman of PQA, Saeed Ahmed Khan, ex-chairman of OGRA, Aamir Naseem, ex-member Oil of OGRA, Uzma Adil Khan, ex-chairperson of OGRA, Shahid M Islam, ex-MD of PSO, Husain Dawood, chairman of Engro Corporation Limited, Abdul Samad Dawood, director of Engro Corporation Limited and others.
The allegation is that the accused through non transparent process awarded the LNG Terminal-1 contract. The accused public office holder misused their authorities in active connivance with each other to give wrongful gains of Rs14.146 billion to EETL/ETPL/ECL in connection with LNG Terminal-1 of EETL and also caused a wrongful loss of Rs7.438 billion (Approx) for non-utilization of unused capacity of 2nd LNG Terminal of PGPL from March, 2015 till September 2019.
Hence, a total liability becomes Rs21.584 billion (Approx) till September, 2019.
In this respect, it is pertinent to mention here that further loss to be incurred for next 10 years will amount to Rs47 billion (Approx) as the said contract will expire on March, 2029. During the period unexplained deposits of Rs1.426 billion were received in the accounts of Abdullah Khaqan Abbasi and Rs1.294 billion was received in the bank accounts of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the period from 2013 to 2017, during which the above said LNG Terminal deal was struck. By concealing the origin of above said deposits and layering, the accused also committed offence of money laundering.