Pak anti-graft body freezes accounts of Sharif, family

TIL Desk/World/Lahore/ Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif today suffered a major setback after Pakistan’s anti-graft body froze the bank accounts and seized the properties of him and his family members facing corruption and money laundering charges in the Panama Papers scandal.

Sharif, 67, stepped down after the Supreme Court disqualified him on July 28 from continuing in his office for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children.

The Accountability Court in Islamabad, which is hearing the corruption cases against the Sharif family, today summoned Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law capt (retd.) Safdar to appear before it on September 26.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) pasted the summonses and property attachment notices on the Sharifs’ residence in Raiwind on the outskirts of Lahore. Sharif, along with his children, is in London to be with his ailing wife Kulsoom who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

There is speculation in the Pakistani media that the Sharif family may not return to face the NAB corruption cases. The ruling PML-N party, however, insists that Sharif would return once his wife’s health improves.