The NAB lawyer informed the court that the NAB closed the case and declared it “baseless”.
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and sought its response to a petition filed by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz seeking refund of Rs 70 crore deposited as security in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
A three-member full bench, headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, heard the petition. Justice Jawad Zafar and Justice Abhar Gul Khan were also part of the court.
During the hearing, the NAB lawyer informed the court that the NAB had already closed the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, declaring it baseless. At this, the Chief Justice questioned whether the case had also been formally concluded by the relevant trial court.
Replying to the question, the NAB counsel submitted that as per law, the approval of the trial court was not required. However, CJ Neelum observed that although the NAB had closed the case, final approval from the concerned trial court was still required.
The court directed NAB to submit a detailed response by February 4.
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Petitioner CM Maryam Nawaz filed her petition through her lawyer, contending that the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case had been terminated and declared baseless by the NAB and therefore the Rs 70 million deposited as security should be returned to her.
The case pertains to information received in January 2018 about a massive suspicious transaction involving billions of rupees at Chaudhry Sugar Mills under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
At that time, NAB launched an investigation and found out in October 2018 that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and another family of late Abbas Sharif were the shareholders of the company, along with some foreigners from the UAE and the UK.
Huge investments worth billions of rupees were made in Chaudhry Sugar Mills between 2001 and 2017 on behalf of foreigners by issuing shares worth millions to them. Subsequently, the same shares of the company were allegedly transferred back to Maryam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif at various times without paying any consideration, leading to the conclusion that the names of foreigners were used as proxies to make huge investments in the company as the Sharif family had no white money to invest.
