LAHORE: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Barrister Shahzad Akbar on Thursday said the Sharif family money laundered Rs22 billion through fake accounts in last 10 years.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had received a corruption reference which made these allegations, he said addressing a press conference in Lahore.
“Benami accounts of lower staff of Al-Arabia Sugar Mills and Ramzan Sugar Mills, like peon, clerk and accounts manager, have been found through which more than Rs22 billion have been money laundered in last 10 years. We have received evidence of all these claims upon investigation,” said Shahzad Akbar.
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Al-Arabia is owned by sons of Pakistan Muslim League-N President Shehbaz Sharif, while Ramzan Sugar Mills is part of the Sharif Group of Companies.
Giving details of the benami accounts, the adviser on accountability said 12 low-income staff had these accounts on their names and more than 15 billion rupees had been money laundered through them. Rs7 billion were laundered through accounts of some other people who were registered as employees of such companies which were found to be non-existent physically, he said.
“Rs3.7 billion were transfeered to account of a peon Malik Maqsood, who was a personal tea boy of Salman Shehbaz. Malik Maqsood had fled from the country in 2018 after investigation in the case began. Within few years, Rs2.3 billion were transferred to account of a peon of Ramzan Sugar Mills, Muhammad Aslam. Rs1.66 billion were transferred between 2011 and 2014 in account of a clerk of Ramzan Sugar Mills and Rs1.57 billion were transferred to account of an employee Ghulam Shabbar,” he said.
The PM’s adviser said all the accounts were operated by Salman Shahbaz and his chief financial officer. He said that he had all the evidence that the money was not transferred for a business purpose. “We have got forensic details of the bank accounts,” he said.
