NAB launches money laundering probe against Maryam Nawaz

Lahore: Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has initiated another probe against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter and PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz after the Islamabad accountability court rejected its application seeking legal proceedings against her for using a bogus trust deed in the Avenfield graft case.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) launched the investigation against Maryam Nawaz, her father, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) President Shehbaz Sharif, her cousins Hamza Shahbaz and Yousuf Abbas, and others for owning the M/s Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd.

The NAB has reportedly traced numerous telegraphic transfers worth millions of rupees by the Sharif family and the end beneficiaries included Maryam Nawaz and other owners of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.

“The bureau may send a questionnaire to Maryam Nawaz instead of summoning her,” a source told the daily. 

According to the source, the money laundering evidence against the owners of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills surfaced during the probe against Shehbaz Sharif and his sons in income beyond means and money laundering case.

Meanwhile, the NAB Lahore earlier wrote to over a dozen commercial banks to freeze more than 150 accounts of Shehbaz Sharif and his family.

Shehbaz Sharif on Friday presided over a meeting of the party’s provincial parliamentarians and vowed to fight the “fascist tactics” of the Imran Khan government against the opposition.