PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz was detained on Thursday while she was visiting her father Nawaz Sharif at the Kot Lakhpat Jail, DawnNewsTV reported quoting National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials.
Maryam had been given a questionnaire based on six questions in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case, which she was due to answer by 3pm today. However, NAB officials reached Kot Lakhpat jail and detained the PML-N vice president there.
Maryam had appeared before NAB on July 31 to record her statement in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills reference. The statement was regarding ‘dubious’ business transactions of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) of which she was one of the major shareholders.
NAB sources had revealed to Dawn at the time that in January 2018 the PML-N government’s financial monitoring unit reported to NAB a huge suspicious transaction involving billions of rupees in the M/s Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd under Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The sources further confirmed that a NAB inquiry started in October 2018 detected that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and the family of the late Abbas Sharif are shareholders in the company along with some foreigners of the UAE and the UK.
“Huge investments were made in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills from 2001 to 2017 in billions of rupees in the name of the foreigners issuing shares in millions to them, later on the same shares of the company were transferred back to Maryam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif at various times without paying any consideration which led to the conclusion that names of foreigners were used as proxies to make huge investments in the company for the reason that Sharif family did not have white money for investment,” a source close to the case had told Dawn.
NAB had re-summoned Maryam on Aug 8 (today), and asked her to provide details of her shareholdings in the CSM, details of financial relations with foreign nationals — Saeed Said bin Jabar al Suweidi, a UAE national; Sheikh Zakauddin, a UK national; Hani Ahmad Jamjoon, a Saudi national; and Naseer Abdullah Lootah, a UAE national.
She was also asked to provide details of remittances/telegraphic transfers sent and received by her from abroad.
Accountability judge, Mohammad Bashir, on July 6 last year had convicted former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam in the Avenfield properties reference and sentenced them to 10 years and seven years imprisonment, respectively.
The Islamabad High Court, however, had suspended the sentence and released Maryam.
