LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his two sons, daughter and her husband chose not to appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) here on Sunday to join investigation into their London flats reference.

NAB officials said they had issued summons to Mr Sharif, Hussain, Hassan and Maryam Nawaz as well as retired Capt Safdar for joining investigations at its Lahore offices by 2pm on Sunday into the purchase of the flats and the resources used for acquiring the expensive property.

A six-member team led by DG Shehzad Saleem waited for the Sharif family members till 2pm, but none of them appeared.

A spokesperson for the family said there was no question of appearing before the NAB because they did not receive any summons.

It was the second time that the Sharifs skipped NAB investigations, the first being on Aug 18 in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case, on the same grounds.

Former first family said to be served no further notices by the anti-graft watchdog

The Sharifs’ legal team believes that they need not join the probe until the Supreme Court decides the review petition filed by the family against the apex court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case in which the NAB was directed to file various references within six weeks.

The anti-corruption watchdog enjoys powers to arrest a person who refuses to join investigations. But, NAB officials say they may not resort to arrests at this stage and will prefer submitting the reference to a NAB court on the basis of the information collected from the Joint Investigation Team’s report in the Panama Papers case.

The court may issue arrest warrants for the suspects if they won’t appear before it and order confiscation of their properties and / or declare them absconders, they add.

A spokesman for the Sharifs advised this reporter to contact the family’s legal team when asked if the ex-PM and others would appear before the court or prefer arrest.

Khawaja Haris, the legal adviser to the Sharif family, said he was only taking care of the review petition filed before the apex court.

Ishaq Dar summoned Meanwhile, the NAB on Sunday issued fresh summons to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to appear before its investigation team on Aug 22 for a probe into his assets and wealth made beyond his known sources of income.

This is the second time Mr Dar has been summoned by the NAB. Earlier, he was summoned on Aug 18, but the finance minister did not show up.

Meanwhile, the NAB has decided not to issue further notices to the Sharif family to summon them for investigation and references will be filed against them without recording their statements.

A NAB official, who did not want to be named, told Dawn on Sunday that the bureau had served notices on Mr Sharif and his family members and Mr Dar. “But now it has been decided that no further notice will be served and four references will be filed against them within the timeframe given by the Supreme Court,” he said.

The apex court has given six weeks to the NAB to file references against the Sharifs in accountability courts.

The official said the NAB headquarters had sent one copy each of Volume 10 of the JIT report to NAB Rawalpindi and NAB Lahore to prepare references in the light of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) made with different countries and their replies, NAB’s already conducted investigation into the Sharifs’ cases, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reports and JIT report.

He said according to the MLA made with British authorities, it has been proved that Maryam Nawaz was an owner of Avenfield (London) properties.

Similarly, the UAE government had rejected the Sharifs’ point of view regarding Gulf Steel and thus nullified the Qatari letter which was presented by them as their money trail of offshore assets, he said.

The official said that the Sharifs had sent a letter to the NAB, saying they would not appear before the bureau the Supreme Court’s decision on their review petition. “In the same letter the Sharifs have mentioned NAB’s notice contradicting their own claim that they had not received any such notice from the NAB,” he added.

When contacted, a NAB spokesman said he was not aware that any further notice will be served on the Sharifs or not. “The combined investigation team of the NAB will make a decision about it,” he said.

Syed Irfan Raza also contributed to this report from Islamabad

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2017