ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday challenged the attachment of properties of the Sharif family in Murree and Chhangla Galli with other properties frozen in connection with the Toshakhana reference because of absconding of her father Nawaz Sharif.

Accountability court judge Syed Asghar Ali issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau and sought a report from the bureau by Dec 16.

Ms Sharif filed the objection petition in the Accoun­tability Court against the attachment of House No 24-A&B, III, Hall Road, Murree, and a house in Chhangla Galli, Abbottabad, in the Toshakhana case.

She stated in the petition that both houses were owned by her late mother, Kalsoom Nawaz. She said that the two houses had been purchased much before the period mentioned in the reference and after the death of the owner of the houses in question, the ownership devolved upon legal heirs as per judgment and decree dated May 14, 2019, and the houses are undivided properties in the joint ownership of all legal heirs.

She requested the court that order dated Oct 1, 2020, was liable to be corrected under section 88 (6A) Criminal Procedure Code and the above-mentioned properties may be released from the attachment.

In September this year, the Accountability Court declared Mr Sharif a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana vehicles reference, initiated the process to confiscate his properties and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to make his arrest through Interpol.

According to the Toshakhana reference, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari had obtained vehicles from Toshakhana by paying only 15 per cent of the price of luxury vehicles.

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

The Accountability Court-III of Islamabad had in May issued non-bailable warrants for Mr Nawaz Sharif for not attending the court proceedings in the reference and had also initiated the process to declare him a proclaimed offender.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2020