Again slamming Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, Advisor to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar said on Friday that money laundering charges against him had been proven, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a presser in Islamabad, he said that Shehbaz had opened bank accounts in the names of ordinary workers of Ramzan Sugar Mills. “There were 28 such accounts when he was the Punjab chief minister between 2008 and 2018,” he said, and added, “Rs16 billion were laundered through these very accounts. Close to 17, 000 transactions were made. That’s why it took the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) one year to collect their details.”

He also accused former finance minister Ishaq Dar of opening benami accounts. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk2UpTphJa0

Advisor to the PM claimed that Shehbaz and his son, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz had failed to satisfy the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during interrogation. “Despite the fact that Gulzar Ahmad, a peon in Ramzan Sugar Mills, was long dead, still Shehbaz Sharif and his family continued to draw amounts from his account,” Shahzad alleged. 

Another employee in whose name the account was opened was Aurangzeb Butt. “Rs1 billion were transferred in his account,” he added.   

He told that a man named Masroor Anwar would draw huge sums from Gulzar’s account, and would then deposit these in Shehbaz and Hamza’s accounts.

He further said that the PML-N president and others had been released in Hudaibya Papers Mills case on technical grounds, and not on merit. 

Stressing the need for the trial of such cases on a daily basis, advisor to the PM said conviction of the people like Shehbaz in corruption cases was not possible unless there was a complete investigation.      

He appealed to the accountability courts, high courts and the Supreme Court to hear the money laundering as well as other graft cases against the Shehbaz Sharif’s family daily so that truth could be sifted from falsehood. “We as a government are bound to provide you all types of facilities. We will present witnesses. The rest is your job as well as that of prosecution,” he remarked. 

Shahzad warned that the country would remain on the grey list so long as cases of money laundering were not there.  

He told the media that challan, which had been submitted to the court, in Shehbaz’s family’s benami accounts case was not complete since some of those nominated in it were at large, including Shehbaz’s other son Suleman Shehbaz. “The revelations made in the challan are worth pondering over,” he said, adding that the NAB had also submitted to the court seven volumes containing proofs of PML-N president’s money laundering along with the challan.

Advisor to the PM went on to say that there was another money laundering case against Shehbaz in which too he had been found guilty. “Both the cases: the one under review right now and the previous one are same; the only difference is that in the former PML-N president has emerged as a mastermind,” he elaborated.