Federal government departments accused of obstructing a probe into the ruling Sharif family's business dealings abroad submitted their replies to the Supreme Court on Friday.

In a report submitted to the apex court earlier this week, the joint investigation team (JIT) implementing a Supreme Court-sanctioned investigation into the prime minister's family had alleged that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the law ministry and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had been creating hurdles in handing over requested records and were guilty, in some instances, of fabricating or tampering with relevant documents.

The institutions, however, denied all allegations against them.

The IB denied the allegation that it had hacked a Facebook account in the use of JIT member Bilal Rasool and his family members in order to retrieve its contents — which were apparently attached by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's elder son, Hussain Nawaz, in a complaint regarding the JIT's partiality to the SC.

"The IB has denied the allegation of hacking [the] Facebook account of Bilal Rasool or his wife or any other member of the JIT," the reply submitted in court today read.

The JIT had also accused NAB of employing what it said were 'underhanded tactics' in order to pressure its representative in the investigative team, Irfan Naeem Mangi. The 'tactics' involved issuing Mangi a show-cause notice, which the JIT claimed was done to pressure him.

However, NAB denied the allegation and said that the show-cause notice had been issued to 77 other officials of the Bureau along with Mangi on the orders of a court before the formation of the JIT.

Similarly, the FBR denied the JIT's allegation that it had submitted piecemeal, incomplete and selective records of the income and wealth tax returns of the Sharif family from 1985 to date.

In its reply to the court, the FBR said that the "old record" ordered by the JIT "spanned over 40 years and of several people." The FBR added that the record was "provided within the minimum time period".

The JIT's report had also stated that SECP Chairman Zafarul Haq Hijazi was instrumental in closing an investigation into a money-laundering case launched against Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd.

This act of closing an investigation retroactively is a criminal act, ostensibly aimed at facilitating those who are being investigated, the report asserted.

The report had also alleged that the SECP chairman’s orders to tamper with the record and close the money-laundering investigation retroactively was executed by SECP Executive Director Ali Azeem Ikram, whose name was proposed for the JIT by the SECP chairman.

However, the SECP, too, denied the allegations levelled against it.

In its response, the SECP wrote that the investigation against Chaudhry Sugar Mills was closed in 2013 — "well before the appointment of the incumbent chairman" — whereas the JIT had stated that it was closed in 2016, with effect from Jan 8, 2013.

"The allegation of tampering the record is therefore prima facie incorrect," the SECP's response stated.

Regarding the nomination of Ikram to the JIT, the SECP said: "nomination of a person or another by the institution was a matter prior to the formation of the JIT and cannot be dubbed an obstacle in the way of the working of the JIT."

In the response, submitted to the court by the attorney general, Prime Minister's House had also denied allegations of "tutoring of witnesses and persons being summoned by the JIT".

"It appears that the JIT has wasted time on social media marketing, watching TV talk shows and reading articles," the attorney general told the court after he submitted the reply.