ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday appealed to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to turn down the latest request of Maryam Nawaz for her acquittal in the Avenfield House reference, recommending instead an exemplary fine be imposed on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president.
In July 2018, an accountability court ruled that deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family laundered money in the 1990s to pay for four luxury apartments in Park Lane, central London, drawing on allegations that resurfaced in the 2016 Panama Papers.
Accountability Court judge Mohammad Bashir sentenced Maryam to seven years’ imprisonment, fined the family £10m and ordered the seizure of the Avenfield properties. She also received an additional one-year sentence for presenting forged documents in court.
In October, Sharif, his daughter and her husband, Muhammad Safdar, had filed appeals in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against their convictions. The court in September that year suspended their sentences and released them on bail.
Saying the petition was inadmissible for the proceedings, the agency, in its response, contended Maryam’s application is devoid of facts.
“The Supreme Court has already given its judgement on the allegations levelled in her petition, and the accountability court had pronounced its verdict in the reference after completing all the legal formalities,” it informed the court.
“Similarly, the defendant was given a patient hearing at the trial court as well.”
The anti-graft watchdog also rejected the claims of political engineering, adding neither she nor her father submitted the money trail in the reference.
Maryam and her brothers, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, are fugitives from justice, it said.
The verdict in the case was announced by accountability judge Bashir and late former accountability judge Arshad Malik — who Maryam claimed was “pressured and blackmailed” to convict her father in Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference — had nothing to do with it, the NAB recalled.
The bureau further termed the purported statements and video involving Judge Malik as false and contradictory to the facts. It also appealed to launch contempt proceedings against the petitioners for levelling accusations in the new petition.
The corruption watchdog further requested the high court to impose a fine on Maryam.
NAB’s prosecutor argued the law turned onus of proof on the accused after ownership of apartments [of Sharifs] was established. He said: “The agreement of money transfer turned out to be fake. Likewise, the deed declaring Maryam Nawaz trustee was also proved fake. She possesses assets beyond her declared source of income.”
The prosecutor further added Sharifs had not registered Calibri-fame trust deed in the United Kingdom. “Maryam Nawaz masterminded this trust deed and declared his brother as the beneficial owner [of the residence].”
The Sharif family has long struggled to explain how the Avenfield flats came into their possession. Family members initially told different stories. During the NAB trial, Sharif’s defence claimed that a Qatari investment fund gave the expensive properties to the family to repay a debt owed to Mr Sharif’s father, Mian Muhammad Sharif.
Commentators in 2017 mocked a letter from a Qatari prince apparently testifying to that deal as a rabbit pulled out of a hat.
