ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to seek the help of Interpol to bring back former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from the United Kingdom as the Accountability Courts have issued his arrest warrants in two different cases.
The Accountability Court Islamabad has issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Sharif, and started process for declaring him as a proclaimed offender for not appearing before it in the Toshakhana reference.
The Accountability Court in Lahore issued bailable arrest warrants for Sharif in a reference against allotment of land to Jang Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakilur Rehman.
Sources said the NAB had decided to contact the UK authorities through the Foreign Office to bring back Sharif and his nephew Salman Shehbaz as the latter had been declared a proclaimed offender in a money laundering case against the Sharif family.
The bureau also decided to get Sharif declared a proclaimed offender from the court in the Toshakhana reference. During the previous hearing, the Accountability Court Judge, Asghar Ali, postponed declaring Sharif as proclaimed offender until August 25, after the court was informed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader's arrest warrants had been challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
However, the counsel for Sharif withdrew the petition on August 20th filed in the IHC challenging his non-bailable arrest warrants issued by the court; therefore, the Accountability Court may declare Sharif a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana case during the next hearing, legal experts say.
Similarly, the IHC on October 28, 2019 had suspended the sentence of former premier Nawaz Sharif on medical grounds for eight weeks in the Al-Azizia case, which had also ended on December 20, 2019.
According to the NAB sources, the court will be approached for execution of Sharif's sentence in the Al-Azizia reference.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on October 25 granted bail to Sharif on medical grounds in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
On September 18, 2018, the IHC suspended the sentences of former premier, Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, son-in-law Captain (retired) Muhammad Safdar in Avenfield case.
They said the NAB had also decided to inform the IHC that the PML-N leader Sharif was absconding.
The bail of Sharif has expired and his status is now that of a fugitive.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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