The NAB lawyer informed the court that the case had been closed by the NAB, declaring it “baseless”.
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and sought its response to a petition filed by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz seeking refund of Rs 70 million deposited as security in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
A three-member full bench, headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, heard the petition. Justice Jawad Zafar and Justice Abhar Gul Khan were also part of the bench.
During the hearing, the NAB lawyer informed the court that the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case had already been closed by the NAB, declaring it baseless. The Chief Justice then questioned whether the matter had also been formally concluded by the relevant trial court.
In response to the question, the NAB lawyer said that under the law, the trial court’s approval was not required. However, CJ Neelum observed that even though the NAB had closed the case, final approval from the concerned trial court was still required.
The court ordered NAB to submit a detailed response by February 4.
Read: Every Pakistani owes Rs333,000
Petitioner CM Maryam Nawaz filed her petition through her lawyer, claiming that the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case had been closed and declared unfounded by the NAB and hence the Rs 70 million deposited as security should be returned to her.
The case relates to information received in January 2018 regarding a massive suspicious transaction involving billions of rupees at Chaudhry Sugar Mills under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
During which the NAB initiated an investigation and found in October 2018 that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and other families of the late Abbas Sharif were the shareholders of the company, along with foreigners from the UAE and the UK.
Huge investments were made in Chaudhry sugar factories from 2001 to 2017, amounting to billions of rupees, in the name of foreigners by issuing them shares in millions. Later, the same shares of the company were allegedly re-transferred to Maryam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif several times without paying any consideration, leading to the conclusion that the names of foreigners were used as proxies to make huge investments in the company as the Sharif family had no white money to invest.
