NAB Deputy Prosecutor Imranul Haq made the statement in response to a question posed on Tuesday by a three-judge bench of the apex court ─ headed by Justice Mushir Alam ─ which is hearing the Hudaibiya Papers Mills reference. In a fresh appeal submitted to the SC on Wednesday, Haq tried to justify NAB’s failure in pursuing the Hudaibiya reference more vigorously after the Bureau was admonished a day earlier for being ill prepared. He requested that the court “scrutinise” the three-year-old “impugned judgement” and allow NAB to reopen the reference. Naming Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, their deceased brother Abbas Sharif and five other family members as respondents, NAB urged the court to annul the LHC judgement. While Nawaz was not named in the interim reference filed in March 2000, in the final reference against the Hudaibya Paper Mills — approved by then chairman NAB Khalid Maqbool — the bureau had accused Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar, Sabiha Abbas and Maryam Nawaz.

Source: Pakistan Today November 29, 2017 08:15 UTC