LAHORE: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar said on Saturday that PM Imran Khan won't even give the "N" of "NRO Plus Plus" to the Opposition and would bring back Nawaz, his children and Ishaq Dar.
The former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had left the country for his treatment on certain conditions but none of these had been fulfilled, Akbar said.
While addressing a press conference here, Akbar said Nawaz Sharif was permitted to get medical treatment from abroad subject to his return to the country within the stipulated time frame. Secondly, he was bound to submit his periodical medical reports and updates to the court as well as to the Punjab government. However, he claimed that Nawaz had not submitted any such report to either the court or the Punjab government.
He recalled that on October 29, 2019, Nawaz was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court for eight weeks on medical grounds in the Al Azizia case. The bail was given with the condition that after eight weeks, in case he does not recover, the Punjab government will take up the matter under CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) and conduct a proper hearing, he said. After that, on November 16, Shehbaz Sharif filed an undertaking in the Lahore High Court that Nawaz will return to Pakistan after the required medical procedures, Akbar said. "On December 23, after the eight-week bail had expired, Nawaz had appealed to the Punjab government for an extension in his bail."
Akbar said since the bail was granted on medical grounds, the Punjab government constituted another medical board which demanded fresh reports of Nawaz's treatment in London. He claimed that this board was not satisfied with the reports as the PML-N supremo had "not even been administered an injection" over there. The medical board had recommended that he (Nawaz) should not be given an extension in bail, he added.
After that three hearings took place this year on February 19, 20, and 21, where his lawyer, doctor, and members of his party appeared to submit the documents validating Nawaz's health condition. On February 27, the Punjab home department took a decision rejecting extension in bail and demanded that Nawaz should return to Pakistan immediately and surrender himself to the authorities.
Highlighting the importance of home department's decision, Akbar said that Nawaz, through his counsel, had filed an application in the Islamabad High Court claiming that he had not received the government's decision. But, he said, the PML-N had received the decision. "I have brought this order with me so that someone may send it to him." The order has also been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the direction that a letter be sent to the British government, he said.
Akbar further said that recently, on August 18, the IHC declared Nawaz "an absconder" as his bail had expired. "The federal government has decided to take matters forward with the help of NAB," he said. "This dual standard of accountability cannot take place in Pakistan as common people who hardly get parole, return [to serve their sentence] and Nawaz, who has been disqualified for life by the Supreme Court and found guilty in two cases, is enjoying his life in London."
He made it clear that this was not a personal vendetta and that it was the government's objective to uphold the writ of law.
Referring to Nawaz Sharif's seven-year-imprisonment sentence in the Al Azizia Steel Mills case, he said the former PM "will not be able to enter practical politics for the next seven centuries. You (Nawaz) have been declared disqualified for life. Your picture can be up on a wall but you will never be able to enter politics."
To a query, he said that Pakistan has an agreement with Britain for the "exchange of criminals and the law is same everywhere for criminals".
When asked about Nawaz's further stay in London, Akbar said the former PM's political activism is restricted to the Oxford Street only. He said his daughter Maryam Nawaz's participation is limited to Twitter.
About Ishaq Dar, he said he has also been declared an absconder by an accountability court in 2017 and he is currently residing in London. "We won't let go of Ishaq Dar either. We will bring him back," he said. "Nawaz's children will also be brought back."
About Shehbaz Sharif, Akbar said the PML-N president "is free nowadays and should appear before NAB". He added that the relevant institutions have stepped up efforts to prosecute Salman Shehbaz.
Talking about "NRO Plus Plus", a reference to the Opposition's proposed amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO-1999), Akbar said Imran Khan won't even give the "N" of "NRO Plus Plus" to the Opposition, urging it to stop making a joke out of the legislation.
He further said that Pakistan had been under the threat of being moved from the Financial Action Task Force's "grey list" to "black list".
"If Pakistan had been pushed into that list, we would have become like Iraq and Iran after the wars. We wouldn't even have been able to import medicines," he said.
Akbar said after receiving a list of recommendations from the FATF, a civil servant had been appointed as Director-General FATF. In charge institutions such as the Counter Terrorism Department, the State Bank, the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau, ministries and provincial government were also involved to address the FATF issue.
He said the PTI views money laundering as a serious offence while the Opposition did not consider the crime "serious".
He said, "The biggest bottleneck is money laundering as the Opposition is asking us to not to bring the crime under serious offences."
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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