- Brig (r) Musaddiq Abbasi comes down hard on NAB, saying it was an open-and-shut case
- Alleges bureau and its chairman were also part of entire London Plan
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday gave a clean chit to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Toshakhana vehicle reference, while PTI leader and former adviser on accountability and interior to PM termed the decision ridiculous, saying it was an open-and-shut case.
The Toshakhana is a government department that stores gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments, states, and foreign dignitaries.
The NAB submitted a report to an Islamabad accountability court following its orders to have Nawaz join the investigation.
The NAB investigation report stated that Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif did not pay the amount via a fake account to buy the vehicle from Toshakhana.
According to the report, the vehicle in question was gifted to then-PM Nawaz by the government of Saudi Arabia in 1997 and was submitted in the Toshakhana.
It added that later, the vehicle was included in the federal transport pool. In 2008, then-premier Gilani had offered Nawaz to buy the car, at which the latter did so from the federal transport pool and not the Toshakhana, the NAB report said.
“This case may attract any other offence but it has no relevancy with the benefit of Toshakhana as the subject vehicle when purchased was not part of Toshakhana, rather than the same was part of the federal transport pool,” it said.
It stated that Nawaz had not made the payment for the vehicle from a fake bank account, reiterating that the car was not a part of the Toshakhana valuables when Nawaz bought it.
Subsequently, the NAB urged the accountability court to acquit or discharge the former premier from the reference.
According to the case filed by NAB, then-prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in order to extend illegal benefits to Nawaz and then-president Asif Ali Zardari, allegedly allowed the retention of vehicles gifted to them by different foreign states and dignitaries by relaxing procedures related to the submission of gifts in the Toshakhana.
The accused, “through dishonest and illegal means for their personal benefit and interest”, retained the vehicles in question “against a nominal payment of 15 per cent of the total value”, the reference stated.
In June 2020, an accountability court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the PML-N supremo, who had skipped hearings because he had begun his self-imposed exile in London. Months later, Nawaz had challenged the warrants in the Islamabad High Court but withdrew the petition days later.
On Sept 10, 2020, the ex-premier was declared a proclaimed offender in the case, with an accountability court initiating the process to confiscate his properties and directing the accountability watchdog to make his arrest through Interpol.
Ahead of his return to Pakistan in October last year, an accountability court had suspended the perpetual arrest warrants issued in 2020 for the ex-premier in the case. The PML-N supremo was granted bail days later.
In November, the NAB informed a Lahore accountability court that it had recorded Nawaz’s statement in the reference.
PTI lambasts NAB for exonerating Nawaz in Toshakhana case
Brigadier (retd) Muhammad Musaddiq Abbasi, former adviser on accountability and interior to Prime Minister came down hard on National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for giving clear chit to Nawaz Sharif in the Toshakhana vehicle reference, which was ridiculous because it was an open-and-shut case.
In a strongly-worded reaction to the development, PTI senior leader Musaddiq Abbasi said that the accountability bureau and its Chairman were also part of the entire London Plan under which first, Nawaz and his sons were called from abroad to clear them of a whooping Rs1,100 billion corruption cases.
He said that now the watchdog proposed the court to exonerate Nawaz in Toshakhana case, making mockery of the justice system in the country because the NAB was clearly siding with the thieves.
Brigadier (retd) Musaddiq stated that NAB could not close corruption cases rather it was duty-bond to recover all illegally taken gifts and vehicles from the thieves.
PTI leader revealed that 15 out of 25 witnesses had already appeared in the Toshakhana case against Nawaz Sharif and the remaining 10 had to appear but ironically the watchdog affirmed the court’s authority to given him a clean chit in the mega corruption cases.
Musaddiq Abbasi lambasted the NAB and said that it was responsible for May 9 incident as it unlawfully detained PTI Founding Chairman Imran Khan, which was even declared by the Supreme Court as illegal.
He made it clear that vehicles and antiques could not be purchased from Toshakhana neither under the new nor under the old one, adding that Imran Khan-led government passed a law raising the amount payable to retain a gift from Toshakhana from 20 percent of the value of the gift to 50 percent under a well-conceived strategy to generate more revenue for the country.
Brigadier (retd) Muhammad Musaddiq made it clear that all the criminals who had taken unfair advantage of Toshakhana law would have to be held accountable come what may.
