Shehbaz fails to appear before NAB in assets case

LAHORE: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif failed to appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday in connection with a probe for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to known source of income.

Shehbaz’s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz said his client had submitted a written reply to NAB. However, sources said, the bureau has not yet received any reply from the PML-N president.

NAB would take action against Shehbaz over his failure to turn up as per law, they added.

NAB Lahore has launched a probe against Shehbaz Sharif and his sons over alleged assets beyond known source of income and money laundering. His sons – Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz and Salman Shehbaz – have been summoned on April 10 (tomorrow).

Earlier, on March 19, NAB had claimed to have obtained more evidence against Shehbaz Sharif in the assets beyond mean case.

According to NAB sources, Nusrat Shehbaz, the first wife of Shehbaz, owned assets worth Rs225.6 million while his second wife, Tehmina Durrani owned assets worth Rs5.7 million in Pakistan.

Besides, Durrani also had eight valuable properties in Defence area, which were gifted to her by Shehbaz Sharif. She also owned a four kanal plot and one acre valuable agricultural land in Gwadar.

The anti-corruption watchdog twice made efforts to arrest Hamza Shehbaz last week but failed to do so. He has been granted pre-arrest bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC) until April 17.