ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing today (Monday) in the Rs 1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members.
On the last hearing, a three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Mazhar Alam Minakhel had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit complete and original record of the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case till December 11, observing that it wanted to dispose of the case quickly.
On the Supreme Court’s directions, the NAB had filed an appeal before the apex court seeking to set aside the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) 2014 decision to close Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members involving Rs 1.2 billion money laundering.
However, on Saturday NAB filed an application with the Supreme Court requesting that the proceedings may be adjourned until its new prosecutor general is appointed, as Waqas Qadeer Dar had retired last month.
The office of the NAB prosecutor general is vacant since the retirement of Waqas Qadeer Dar in November this year. The NAB has also submitted additional documents regarding the case in the court. In its application, NAB has suggested that it would be better if the same be pleaded through the prosecutor general office, adding that a summary to this effect was already pending approval from the presidency.
NAB has also submitted before the court the copies of interim as well as final reference in Hudaibiya case besides Volume 8A of the JIT report which also contains a copy of the Hudaibiya reference. In compliance with the court orders, NAB has submitted complete details carrying timeline from initiation to closure of the Hudaibiya reference, its proceedings before the accountability court from March 27, 2000, to August 21, 2008.
Besides, a list of NAB’s chairmen from 1999 to date has been submitted. The record pertaining to details of the Sharif family right from their exile to comeback as well as timeline of Nawaz Sharif and his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif from their first public office to the last, has been submitted.
In its appeal filed on September 20 in the Supreme Court seeking re-opening of Hudaibiya case by setting aside the LHC’s 2014 decision, the NAB has impleaded ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his brothers Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and late Abbas Sharif, their mother Shamim Akhtar, Shehbaz Sharif’s son and MNA Hamza Shehbaz, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and others as respondents.
The Hudaibiya Paper Mills was allegedly used as a cover by the Sharif family to launder money to the tune of Rs 1.2 billion outside the country in the 1990s.
Published in Daily Times, December 11th 2017.
