ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Choudhary Monday said that the federal government has decided to order a fresh probe into Hudaibiya Paper Mills case.
In a statement on twitter, he said that the legal team of the government has given a detailed briefing to Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding cases involving Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif.
He said that the government has decided that the case of Hudaibiya Paper Mills needed a fresh investigation and in this regard, the concerned agencies are being asked to reopen the investigation.
He said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif were the main accused in the Hudaibiya case.
The method adopted in laundering money through the Hudaibiya Paper Mills was later adopted in every case, and it is very important to bring this case to an end, he said.
According to the Hudaibiya reference, Sharif family had been accused of setting up Hudaibiya Paper Mills Ltd to launder illegal money.
A joint investigation team set up to investigate the Sharif family’s offshore properties had recommended in its report that the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case should be investigated afresh.
Subsequently, a Supreme Court bench hearing the Panama Papers case had asked the bureau to reopen the case.
The Musharraf government had launched an investigation against the Sharif family members back in 2000 for their alleged involvement in money laundering.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is a close aide and relative of the Sharifs, had given a confessional statement before a magistrate, alleging that Sharif brothers used the Hudaibiya Paper Mills as cover for money laundering during late 1990s.
Dar later retracted his statement and claimed that the statement was gleaned under duress.
Responding to the minister, PML-N spokeswoman Maryum Aurangzeb said that by ordering a fresh probe into Hudaibiya Papers’ Mills case, the prime minister has proved that all the case against Sharif are ‘factious, false and politically motivated.’
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021