Panama Papers verdict: Pakistani anti-corruption body seeks bank details of Nawaz Sharif and his family members

Islamabad: Pakistan’s top anti-corruption body has sought the details of bank accounts of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family from the State Bank of Pakistan, according to a media report on Friday. In July, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had disqualified Sharif from continuing in his office for possessing a work permit at the firm of his son in the UAE. [caption id=“attachment_3934367” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Nawaz Sharif. AP[/caption] The apex court had ruled that Sharif had been “dishonest to the parliament and the courts in not disclosing his employment in the Dubai-based Capital FZE company in his 2013 nomination papers.” The court also ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate money laundering and other corruption charges against Sharif, his children, son-in-law Safdar and finance minister Ishaq Dar, a relative of Sharif, in light of the report of the Joint Investigation Team that probed the Panama Papers case. The NAB has sought the complete details of bank accounts of the Sharif family from the central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), The Express Tribune reported. The top graft buster wrote a letter to the SBP on Thursday seeking complete banking transactions records of members of the Sharif family, a senior NAB official said. Sharif, 67, has dismissed the corruption charges against him as a “bundle of baseless allegations.” The SBP will collect the details from all banks in the country and furnish them to NAB after they are compiled. The official said that the development shows that the anti-graft watchdog, besides using the report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which probed the Panama Papers case on the directions of the Supreme Court, is also conducting its own inquiries into the issue. The JIT was also provided with records of the Sharif family’s banking transactions. Besides seeking records of banking transactions, the NAB had already written a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) seeking details of some seven companies owned by relatives of finance minister Dar, the report said.