ISLAMABAD Nov 10 (TNS): The thirty-day deadline given to Hasan and Hussain Nawaz, sons of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, to appear before the accountability court hearing corruption cases expired today.
With the expiry of deadline despite the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against the accused, properties of the scions of Sharif family may be seized at any given time as they both are declared, ‘proclaimed offenders’.
Hasan and Hussain are accused in all three references: Avenfield properties, Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment, and Flagship Investment Ltd.
At an earlier hearing on October 9, Judge Mohammad Bashir had accepted NAB’s plea to declare Hussain and Hasan proclaimed offenders and separated their proceedings in the three references filed against them.
The accountability court will hear Hasan, Hussain’s case on November 14. Their non-bailable arrest warrants, issued at the last hearing on October 2, remained in effect.
The judge directed for initiating the process of declaring them proclaimed offenders. This involved publication of notices in newspapers directing the accused to appear in court. Failure to do so would result in seizure of property and issuance of further warrants.
On October 12, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) pasted the court’s proclamation order on the main gate of the Sharif family’s residences in Jati Umra and Model Town, Lahore.
NAB Rawalpindi said the action was taken in light of the accountability court’s directions for the initiation of the process to declare them proclaimed offenders, as they failed to show up in the court’s last hearing.
Earlier, the court hearing corruption cases against the Sharif family ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to freeze the assets of Hasan and Hussain.
As the hearing against the brothers, whose trial in the high-profile corruption case has been separated from other family members’ owing to their continued absence, went underway, the NAB submitted a report detailing assets owned by Nawaz’s sons in Pakistan.
NAB said in its report that according to the SECP, Hasan and Hussain own shares in six companies. The court then directed the SECP to freeze their shares and ordered both accused to appear in court by November 8 — failure to do so would result in them being declared proclaimed offenders.
