ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq Hijazi along with an executive director and five other top-level directors presented himself before the (JIT) probing the on Friday.
The SECP officials were grilled by the JIT for several hours and sources privy to the information said that they had submitted all documents with reference to the Sharif family to the probe team.
The Federal Investigation Agency is still of the Sharif family’s financial documents.
On Thursday, Lt Gen (r) Mohammad Amjad, who was appointed first chairman of NAB between 1999 and 2000 by former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, at the Federal Judicial Academy.
Sources said the former NAB chief shared details of the Hudaibya Paper Mills, Ittefaq Foundries and Raiwind assets references, prepared by NAB against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family.
The JIT has also summoned the prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, to appear before it on July 5, a move that the ruling party has termed as an ‘egoistic decision’, but has agreed to comply with the summons. Maryam will be the seventh member of her family summoned so far in connection with the ongoing investigation into money laundering allegations.
The JIT summoned her brothers Hussain and Hassan on July 3 and 4, respectively. Hussain Nawaz has already appeared before the JIT five times since May 28.
Other family members of the Sharif family who have appeared before the JIT include Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PM’s son-in-law Captain (r) Mohammad Safdar and PM’s cousin Tariq Shafi.
Sources privy to the development said the JIT would ask Maryam Nawaz about her offshore companies and her financial resources. She may also be asked questions regarding an alleged media campaign against the JIT in newspapers and on television channels and social media, since there is an impression that she is leading the charge in this regard.
The JIT criticised the media for hampering its investigation in its report submitted to the apex court and highlighted comments made by 22 journalists, four politicians and three legal experts in 29 different talk shows.
A PML-N leader said that PM Nawaz had already decided to comply with every direction of the JIT, adding that this was the reason that both his sons, Hussain and Hassan, did not claim exemption, despite being non-resident Pakistanis.
He said that since Maryam Nawaz was currently in the UK to attend the graduation ceremony of her son, she would confirm her appearance after consulting her legal team.
He said that unlike PM Nawaz and his sons, Maryam’s name was not mentioned in the operative paragraph of the SC’s April 20 judgement, therefore she was not expecting that the JIT would summon her.
The apex court verdict virtually cleared Maryam from the controversy, stating that the PM’s daughter ‘has received cash gifts from her father in substantial amounts on various occasions… receipt of gifts from the father does not necessarily make respondent No 6 (Maryam Nawaz) his (Nawaz Sharif) dependent in the legal sense of the word.’
Her husband Capt (r) Safdar also appeared before the JIT on June 24, but sources said that since the PM’s son-in-law left some questions unanswered, the team had issued a summons to his spouse.
On Wednesday, the JIT also examined the record received from the Habib Bank and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The Habib Bank provided records related to the loans which the Sharif family had procured for Hudaibya Paper Mills, while the FBR provided the team wealth statements and tax-related details of Sharif family members.
Published in Daily Times, July 1st , 2017.
