Sharif family: NAB won't issue arrest warrants

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will not issue arrest warrants for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children in the Panama papers investigation following Supreme Court's authorization on August 26 to record the statements of the six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT), officials said.
On August 19, NAB had requested the Supreme Court to grant permission to the Bureau to record the statements of two members of JIT before filing references against the Sharif family members and Ishaq Dar. A senior NAB official told Business Recorder that there is no need to invoke Section 24 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 to forcefully engage the accused Sharif family in the investigation process after getting statements of JIT members and four certified copies of the otherwise confidential Volume-X of the JIT report.
"Now, the non-appearance of Nawaz Sharif, his son Hassan Nawaz, Husssain Nawaz, his son in law Captain Mohammad Safdar (retd) and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar before NAB investigators would not create obstacles in filing the references against them," he said.
He said NAB would have sufficient material with the Sharif family's recorded statements before the JIT as well as recording statements of two JIT members namely the head of JIT, Wajid Zia, and one member - Amir Aziz of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP's) - or Bilal Rasool of Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
Section 24 of the NAB Ordinance stipulates: "The Chairman NAB shall have the power, at any stage of the inquiry or investigation under this Ordinance, to direct that the accused, if not already arrested, shall be arrested". The official said that NAB has completed legal formalities by issuing three summons to members of the Sharif family under section 19 of the NAB ordinance. "The Bureau has in principle decided to file reference against Sharif family members before September 11, the last date given by the Supreme Court", the official said.
The apex court on August 17 provided NAB with four certified copies of the confidential Volume-X of the JIT report in the Panama Papers case. The Volume-X of the JIT report consists of 415 pages.