NAB summons Sharif in Azizia, Flagship cases

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday summoned former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to record his statement in two supplementary references on Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship investments which are to be filed soon.

According to The Dawn, Sharif was summoned by the Rawalpindi NAB headquarters, which is now headed by Irfan Mangi, a member of the Panama Papers leaks Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

The investigation team was formed by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan to probe the corruption allegations against the Sharif family.

According to sources, Mangi wanted to fulfil a legal requirement to get the former Pakistan Prime Minister familiar with the evidence they had collected for supplementary references.

The NAB also added that the two supplementary references, which are to be filed will carry the script of an interview given to a private TV channel by Sharif's son Hussain Nawaz.

The accountability court has resumed hearing of the corruption references against Sharif and his family.

Sharif, his sons Hasan and Hussain, daughter Maryam, son-in-law Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar and Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar are facing multiple corruption references in the accountability court.

The supplementary reference- which names Nawaz, three of his children and Safdar - was filed after the NAB investigators obtained additional evidence under the mutual legal assistance (MLA).

The Pakistan SC had, on July 28 last year, disqualified Sharif from holding the office of the prime minister and had asked the NAB to file references against the Sharif family in connection with corruption cases against them.

The references against the Sharif family pertain to the Al-Azizia Steel Mills, offshore companies including Flagship Investment Ltd, and Avenfield properties of London.