ISLAMABAD: Just a day before the scheduled auctioning of three immovable properties associated with former premier Nawaz Sharif in Lahore and Sheikhupura, three petitions were filed before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging the government order.

An accountability court had directed the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Punjab government last month to sell unclaimed shares and properties of Nawaz Sharif — who is absconding in the Tosha­khana reference — and deposit the proceeds with the state treasury.

Three petitioners namely Mian Barkat Ali, Aslam Aziz and Ashraf Malik on Tuesday challenged the district administration order for auction of a house at Lahore’s Upper Mall and agricultural lands measuring 88 kanals and 105 acres, in Sheikhupura and Lahore, respectively.

Judge Syed Asghar Ali of the accountability court had allowed the National Accoun­tability Bureau (NAB) application seeking directives to relevant authorities to sell the attached properties of the absconder under Section 88 of the criminal procedure code.

According to the judicial record, Mr Sharif owns 467,950 shares in Mohammad Bakhsh Textile Mills, 343,425 in Hudaibya Paper Mills, 22,213 in Hudaibya Engineering Co and 48,606 shares in Ittefaq Textile Mills.

However, the Lahore and Sheikhupura deputy commissioners had been directed to sell within 60 days the immovable properties, which included 88.4-kanal agricultural land in the Ferozwattan area of Sheikhupura and a house at Upper Mall and 105 acres and 10 marlas in district Lahore.

While challenging the auction of the house, Mian Barkat Ali argued that the house was among the non-corporate assets of the Ittefaq Group, which had been settled during the overall settlement among the seven member-families of the Ittefaq Group namely Mian Mohammad Sharif, Mian Mohammad Shafi, Mian Mehrajuddin, Mian Barkat Ali, Mian Abdul Aziz, Mian Khalid Siraj and Mian Idrees Bashir.

According to the petition, a committee comprising Javed Shafi, Waqas Riaz, Suleman Shahbaz and Mukhtar Hussain had executed a joint agreement on April 6, 2014 and the “house in question came to the share of Mian Barkat Ali and family”.

The petitioner claimed that this was “well within the knowledge of investigating officer of NAB”, but the bureau deliberately concealed this fact from the trial court.

Challenging the order for auction of agricultural land in Lahore, petitioner Aslam Aziz argued that the land comprised a family graveyard of Mian Mohammad Sharif and orchids of kinnow, grape fruit, lemon, fig, grape, guava, jaman, mango and many others.

His petition mentioned that the land was firstly attached and then was ordered to be sold within 60 days after the receipt of the accountability court’s order of April 22.

It stated that an official of the district administration on May 7 approached the petitioner to seek possession of the land, which the petitioner said had been leased out to him by Mr Sharif.

According to the petition, since the land is paying revenue to the Punjab government as the petitioner is earning livelihood through this land, he could not be deprived of his legitimate source of earning.

In yet another petition, the IHC was informed that over 88 kanals of land situated in Moza Ferozwattan of Sheikhupura and on the list of the properties associated with Mr Sharif was acquired by petitioner Ashraf Malik from Mr Sharif for Rs75 million vide sale agreement of May 29, 2019.

However, the petition stated, the agreement could not be executed and a suit for execution of this land had been pending with the senior civil judge of Sheikhupura. Mr Malik also informed the court that Mr Sharif was apprehended by the NAB and the transactions related to the Sheikhupura land had been made through banking channels.

All the three petitioners requested the court to set aside the order of auctioning of the properties.

Besides these immovable properties, the accountability court had ordered the excise and taxation offices of Islamabad and Lahore to take possession of some vehicles with the assistance of the local police and sell them within 60 days.

The vehicles are Toyota Land Cruiser (model 2010), Mercedes (1973), Mercedes Benz (1991) and two tractors of 2011) and 2015 models.

The court had directed the managers of MCB New Garden Town, Lahore, Standard Chartered Bank, Gulberg Islamic Branch, and Wapda Town Lahore, Allied Bank New Garden Town and Bank Al-Falah, Y-Block Defence Branch of Lahore to transfer the available funds in the accounts of Mr Sharif in favour of the state treasury within 30 days.

It was reported that there are Rs88,150 available in MCB, Rs30,000 in two branches of Standard Chartered Bank, EUR566, $698 and GBP498 in three other branches of the same bank, Rs397,810 in Allied Bank and Rs88,704 in Bank Al-Falah.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz has already challenged the attachment of other properties of the Sharif family situated in Murree and Changla Gali with those frozen in connection with the Toshakhana reference. She filed the objection petition against the attachment of House No. 24-A&B, III, Hall Road, Murree, and a house in Changla Gali, Abbottabad, in the Toshakhana case.

According to the Toshakhana reference, former president Asif Ali Zardari had obtained vehicles by paying only 15 per cent of the price of the luxury vehicles. Of the three vehicles, he gifted the 1991-model Mercedes to Nawaz Sharif.

The National Accountability Bureau alleged that former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had facilitated the allotment of the vehicles to then president Zardari and opposition party leader Mr Sharif by dishonestly and illegally relaxing the procedure for acceptance and disposal of gifts vide a cabinet division memorandum of 2007.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2021