Multi-billionaire former prime minister of a developing country that has about 90 billions dollars of debt to pay, Nawaz Sharif allegedly owns a collection of four flats combined together known as Avenfield Apartments in London. Nawaz Sharif has stayed in this house since 1993 during his visits to London.
According to the Daily Mail Online, the net worth of this property is seven million pounds (Rs1.38 billion), which Sharif shares with his two sons, daughter and her husband. All five of them are on court trial on allegation of money laundering. The prosecutors have claimed that the Avenfield property was bought with pillage by the three-time former prime minister.
The Sharif family are also accused of owning 21 other UK properties, in Mayfair, Chelsea and Belgravia, worth 32 million pounds (Rs6.34 billion).
In 2017, while Nawaz Sharif was still holding the public office as prime minister, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had disqualified him for life because he did not declare salary of a Dubai-based company while contesting election in 2013.
The Sharif family is accused in three money laundering cases including the Avenfield flats. If they are found guilty, their properties would be seized, huge fines would be imposed and they could be sent to jail for 14 years.
The Daily Mail has claimed that the Sharifs have made ginormous profits from other assets including the one at One Hyde Park residential complex, which was sold by Hassan Nawaz for 43 million pounds (Rs8.52 billion).
The prosecutors have claimed that the Sharif family members own properties in Switzerland, the Middle East and the British Virgin Islands besides England.
According to the national accountability laws, which were enacted in 1997 during regime of Nawaz Sharif, one has to prove if his offshore asset was acquired legally or not.
The family have claimed that most of their assets were bought after selling the 25 percent of stakes of Nawaz’s father Mian Sharif in a Dubai steel mill in 1980. The stake were claimed to be sold at 1.2 million pounds. The family claimed that the money obtained after selling the shares were later given to a now deceased Qatari prince who invested the money in a company. Nawaz Sharif relayed the joint investigation team that his grandfather did not believe in documentation therefore they had no written record.
The prince’s son wrote to the apex court claiming that the story was true but he also could not provide solid documents. While, the JIT has termed the account as false and fabricated.
