NAB Claims Sharif’s Assets Went up from 2 Million to 7,000 Million PKR in 30 Years

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has stated that the family assets of the Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif expanded from 2 million PKR to 7,000 million PKR in a time span of just 30 years and the family has not yet provided any reasonable justification of the matter. 

The convicted Shehbaz Sharif has been accused by the NAB of developing a controlled system of money-laundering in order to accumulate assets, to the tune of 7,328 million PKR, incommensurate with his registered sources of income, all of which he did in collaboration with his family members, front men, employees, close associates, Benamidars, and money-changers. 

After the PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif was arrested from the premises of Lahore High Court, the NAB Lahore shared a document which stated that in 1990, assets worth 2.121 million PKR were declared by Sharif which, in 2018, grew to be 7,328 million PKR in a period of just 28 years. The report further claimed that in 1990, the assets were worth 2.121 million PKR, as confirmed by Shehbaz Sharif, whereas in 1998, his net assets, together with the assets of his minors, mounted to 14.865 million PKR. 

The NAB added that in the period mostly from 2008 to 2018 when Shehbaz Sharif held the public office as the Chief Minister of Punjab, the Sharif family acquired assets worth 7,328 million PKR. 

NAB stated that Shahbaz Sharif and family invested in Rs 2,770 million in a total of thirteen newly-built companies under the banner of Sharif Group of Companies, some of them named as M/s Chiniot Power, M/s Sharif Feed, M/s Sharif Dairy Farms, and M/s Al-Arabia Sugar Mills with their sources of income being unknown. 

NAB accused Shehbaz Sharif of building Benami companies namely M/s Unitas Steel Pvt Ltd, M/s Good Nature Trading Company Pvt Ltd, M/s Nisar Trading Concern (in the name of Nisar Ahmed and Ali Ahmed, who are the employees of CM Secretariat), M/s Waqar Trading Company, for the sole purpose of laundering the disproportionate funds amounting to Rs 2,400.088 million. Additionally, the indicted also bought several properties including Model Town, Lahore, Villas at Whispering Pines, 96-H, houses at DHA, Lahore worth Rs 619.858 million, Nishat Lodge Doonga Gali, as well as some foreign assets. 

The NAB blamed the accused while trying to justify the suspected fraudulent assets of Rs 7,328 million, manipulated foreign remittances of Rs 1,597 million, and loans of Rs 1,010 million which have now proven to be fake as the remitters refused to having send any money to Shehbaz Sharif or his family. As of the loans, they are fake too as the lenders confirmed paying to the employees of Shahbaz Group, added the NAB.