Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar Friday claimed that Rs 42.9 million was transferred from Hill Metals Establishment (HME) to the bank accounts of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on different occasions, while over 85 per cent of the HME profit went to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Shahzad Akbar said he has submitted 'evidence' of telegraphic transfers (TTs) from Hill Metals Establishment (HME) in Saudi Arabia to Maryam Nawaz to National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Akbar further claimed that a significant percentage of profit had been shared with Maryam Nawaz.
Talking about the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment reference, he said the reference pertained to the Sharif family members who failed to justify the source of funds used to set up the mills and HME in Saudi Arabia. He said that an important factor that remained unexplored in the reference was that HME made direct payments to Maryam Nawaz.
He said that a joint investigation team (JIT) probing the case had identified some payments made to Maryam, but the details of those had not been available earlier. "Now these details are available," he added, and shared 'documents' showing TTs from HME to Maryam's accounts. He said that these included the 'Form R', in which the beneficiary takes ownership that the money being transferred is in his/her knowledge and is coming for a specific purpose.
He said that this included a TT of Rs 14 million to Maryam's MCB account in 2008, in which the purpose specified was 'investment'; another TT for Rs 19 million and one more in 2016 of Rs 9.9 million from HME to her account at Habib Bank, Jati Umrah branch. Akbar said that NAB may not have seen these documents before, adding that the authority could determine if there is a need for any further investigation or probe into the matter.