ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday said Hudaibiya Papers Mills case involves a fraud of about Rs 1242.732 million which is bigger than Panama Papers scam in volume.
In a series of tweet, the information minister said the case started in the year 2000 when National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials filed a reference against the Hudaibiya Papers Mills Pvt Ltd.
He said Nawaz Sharif’s sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and the latter’s political heir Hamza Shahbaz are the main characters of this case.
He said ex-finance minister Ishaq Dar opened fake foreign currency accounts to help Sharif family in this fraud.
He said Dar became approver in the case and he also recorded a detailed statement with the authorities concerned, but later retracted from his statement saying it was extracted under duress.
Chaudhry said after NAB scrutinized Hudaibiya Papers Mills record, it was revealed that during 1996-97 and 1997-98, a sum of Rs30.499 million and Rs612.273 million was shown as share deposit money.
Fawad continued that this huge influx of money in a company whose share capital was only Rs 95.7 million and which was carrying losses to the tune of Rs 809.834 million, raised serious doubt amongst the investigators. As a result, he added, the NAB ordered investigation of the matter under NAB Ordinance, 1999.
He said during the investigation, it came to the fore that the management of the mills, comprising Muhammad Sharif, Shamim Akhtar, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Maryam Safdar, Sabiha Abbas, Hussain Nawaz and Hamza Shahbaz, are in possession of huge illegal proceeds. It held that the accused failed to explain source of the acquisition of the funds, he added.
The minister said under the cover of the provisions of the Protection of Economic Reform Act 1992, these people frequently opened different fictitious foreign currency accounts and deposited huge amounts in these accounts.
When the scandal of fake accounts was exposed, he added, they decided to deposit the money directly into the accounts of Hudaibiya Papers Mills. He said the decision of a fresh investigation has been taken as some new facts in the case has come to the fore.
The minister said it is the demand of justice that institutions play their role as Pakistan's future depends on the rule of law. Responding to government decision to reopen the case, PML-N spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Hudaibiya Papers Mills reference was dismissed on merit due to lack of evidence but the government is reopening the reference to hide its incompetence. Talking to the media, she said that people are drowning in the flood of inflation but instead of getting a briefing on inflation or coronavirus, Prime Minister Imran Khan gets briefing on Shahbaz Sharif s bail after returning from Saudi Arabia. She went on to say that the government failed to prove even a single allegation in the court against the opposition leader.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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