PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is set to finally return to Pakistan on October 21, ending his four-year exile in the UK after he left in November 2019.

The PML-N chief is a proclaimed offender in the Avenfield, Al-Azizia and Toshakhana cases, but he has since received protective bail in the first two cases and in the third he has been granted relief.

Dawn.com will now take a look at the cases against the PML-N chief.

Avenfield properties corruption reference

The Avenfield reference pertains to the purchase of four flats in Avenfield House, Park Lane, London. It was among the three cases filed by NAB against the former premier and his children on the Supreme Court’s orders in its landmark July 28 Panamagate verdict.

The proceeding in the Avenfield reference had commenced in September 2017 and an accountability court had indicted Nawaz, Maryam Nawaz and Captain Safdar on October 19, 2017.

According to the JIT report submitted in the Panamagate case, the Sharifs had given contradictory statements about their London flats and found that the flats actually belonged to them since 1993.

It said Nawaz had distanced himself from the apartments and could not explain the time frame and procedure adopted for obtaining the possession of Avenfield apartments by his sons and was even uncertain about which son claimed the ownership of the flats now.

An accountability court in July 2018 had handed Nawaz 10 years as jail time for owning assets beyond known income and one year for not cooperating with NAB in the case, as well as a fine of £8m.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had issued an arrest warrant for him in September 2020 while dismissing his application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the hearing of an appeal against his conviction in the Avenfield Properties reference.

Nawaz was subsequently declared a proclaimed offender by the IHC in the case in December 2020. The IHC in June 2021 rejected his appeal against his conviction.

Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference

The reference pertains to the Sharifs being unable to justify the source of the funds provided to set up Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment (HME) in Saudi Arabia, making this a case of owning assets beyond means.

According to NAB’s special prosecutor, the case against the Sharifs revolved around finding out how the family’s companies were established and through which resources.

According to a plea by the Sharif family in court, the late Mian Mohammad Sharif — Nawaz’s father — established Gulf Steel Mills (GSM) in the UAE in 1974.

Seventy-five per cent shares of GSM were sold to Abdullah Kayed Ahli and the entity was re-named Ahli Steel Mills (ASM) in 1978 and the remaining 25pc shares were further sold to the ASM in 1980. This yielded an amount of AED 12m which was invested with the Qatari royal family.

While the Sharifs were in exile, the late Mian Sharif had provided AED 5.4m for Hussain Nawaz and AED 4.2m for Hasan Nawaz to establish Al-Azizia and Hill Metal Establishment in Saudi Arabia, and Flagship Investment and 16 other companies in the UK.

According to the prosecution, the Sharif family had failed to justify the source of the funds provided to set up the firms, making this a case of owning assets beyond means.

The Sharif family had taken the stance that it was out of the AED 12m that the late Mian Sharif invested with the Qatari royal family. Qatari Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, however, did not appear before the joint investigation team (JIT) to verify the details, the prosecution had said.

An accountability court in December 2018 had handed Nawaz seven years in jail in the corruption reference, as well as fined him Rs1.5 billion and $25m.

A disqualification of 10 years from holding any public office was also part of the sentences awarded to the former premier.

Nawaz’s sentence was suspended on medical grounds for eight weeks by the IHC in October 2019. He subsequently left for London in November 2019.

The IHC had issued an arrest warrant for him in September 2020 while dismissing his application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the hearing of an appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia reference.

Nawaz was subsequently declared a proclaimed offender by the IHC in the case in December 2020. The IHC in June 2021 rejected his appeal against his conviction.

Toshakhana case

The case is related to receiving luxury vehicles and gifts from the Toshakhana.

Established in 1974, Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and officials by heads of other governments, states and foreign dignitaries as a goodwill gesture.

Under the rules, it is mandatory that gifts of a certain value are deposited in Toshakhana. However, an official is also allowed to keep these gifts provided he pays a certain percentage of the price assessed by the Toshakhana evaluation committee.

The reference states that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz obt­ained cars from Tosha­khana by paying 15pc of the price of the cars. NAB had further alleged that former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had facilitated the two. He dishonestly and illegally relaxed the procedure for the acceptance and disposal of gifts, issued by the government of Pakistan vide Cabinet Division’s Memorandum No.9/8/2004-TK dated June 25, 2007, which expressly stipulates that vehicles shall not be allowed to be purchased by the recipients and be given to the central pool of care of the Cabinet Division.

The NAB reference alleges that Nawaz did not hold any public office in the year 2008. However, from April to December 2008 without giving any application or request to then prime minister Gillani, Nawaz dishonestly and illegally obtained relaxation for his benefits of procedure for the vide Cabinet Division’s above said Memorandum which expressly stipulates that vehicles shall not be allowed to be purchased by the recipients and be given to the central pool of cars of the Cabinet Division. “Nawaz Sharif knowingly and with dishonest intention obtained illegal favour in connivance with the then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani by obtaining the relaxation of said procedure for the acceptance and disposal of gifts,” the reference states.

The accountability court-III of Islamabad had issued Nawaz’s non-bailable warrants for not attending the court’s proceeding in the reference and had also initiated the process to declare him a proclaimed offender in June 2020.

An accountability court had declared him a proclaimed offender in September 2020, initiated the process to confiscate his properties and directed NAB) to make his arrest through Interpol. In October 2020, an accountability court had ordered authorities to seize Nawaz’s assets.

However, Nawaz got the first benefit from last year’s amendment in the accountability law when an accountability court had returned the Toshakhana reference to the anti-graft watchdog.

The reference was returned by the accountability court to the NAB chairman citing a lack of jurisdiction because of the National Accountability (2nd amendment) Act, 2022, which set a Rs500m threshold to make it triable as an NAB case.

The case has been reopened, however, in the wake of the apex court’s judgement last month on the NAB amendments and proceedings against Nawaz will start upon his surrender.

Chaudhry Sugar Mills case

The case pertains to alleged money laundering and income beyond means via ‘dubious’ business transactions of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM).

A source had revealed 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 the Anti-Money Laundering Act. “The NAB inquiry started in October 2018 detected that Nawaz, Maryam, Shehbaz Sharif and the family of the late Abbas Sharif are shareholders in the company along with some foreigners of the UAE and the UK,” he had said.

“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, Hussain and Nawaz 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,” the source had said.

The source had said Yousuf Abbas and Maryam joined the inquiry but failed to identify the foreigners who had made this investment and what the source of money was. “None of the questions were answered despite specific questions given in notices sent to Maryam Nawaz,” he had said.

Former accountability czar Shahzad Akbar had said that the CSM was established during the first PML-N government in 1991-92 at a cost of $30m and in the project, $15m was a loan taken from a foreign bank and it had still not been proved by the Sharifs as to from where the remaining amount of $15m had come.

He said that the Sharifs had obtained the $15m loan for the installation of the machinery of the sugar mills, but before receiving the loan, the sugar mill was established and they asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to allow them to receive the loan directly into the bank account of the CSM.

“The SBP accepted the demand of the Sharif family and the money was transferred to their bank account,” he had said.

The former prime minister’s aide had said that the investigation conducted into the CSM case had revealed that one UK-based Qazi family was used by the Sharifs for laundering the money and, therefore, the help of the UK government was also being sought to investigate the matter.

He had said that Maryam had received a $7m share of the CSM in 2008 and then the money was transferred to Yousuf, a member of the Sharif family. From Yousuf’s accounts, the amount was transferred to Nasir Lutha’s accounts and from there to Hussain’s accounts and then to Nawaz’s accounts and finally, the amount was again transferred to the bank accounts of Yousuf.

Akbar had said that 50pc of CSM’s holdings belonged to Nasir Lutha, but after returning to Pakistan, Mr Lutha claimed that he was not aware how that money came to his accounts.

“Nasir Lutha told a magistrate in 2010 that some members of the Sharif family had met him in Dubai and gave him $500,000 for investing in his real estate business, but a few days later they came again and asked him to return the money as they had changed their mind,” he had said.

Akbar had said that the Sharifs had been involved in not only money laundering but also in fraud as they kept getting a subsidy from the government till 2018 by showing fake exports of sugar.

The Lahore High Court had granted bail to Nawaz in the case in October 2019.

Recently, sources told Dawn that NAB is set to reopen the case to ‘greet’ Nawaz on his return.

Other cases

NAB is also set to reopen two other cases against Nawaz linked to alleged illegal plot allotments and land acquisitions in Lahore.

In one of the cases from 1986, Nawaz, while serving as Punjab’s chief minister, allegedly misused his position to allot plots in Allama Iqbal Town and Gulberg, Lahore. Another accusation from 1998 centres on the alleged unlawful construction of a road from the Adda Plot to his residence in Lahore.

A previous NAB notice on the matter had said: “Investigation has revealed that you [Nawaz Sharif] being then prime minister illegally convened a meeting on March 15, 1998 regarding construction of the road from Adda Plot to Sundar Mull by utilising funds of Zila Council Lahore for your personal benefit.”

Nawaz was accused of giving “illegal direction” to the authorities concerned to enhance the width of the road from 20 feet to 24 feet for his “personal benefit” which resulted in cost escalation.

“It has also been revealed that you exercised the authority which was not vested with you by passing illegal directions on the project funded by the Zila Council Lahore,” the notice had said.

It had further added: “Being then prime minister you misused your authority by way of initiating the project for your personal benefit in connivance with your brother Shahbaz Sharif who was then the chief minister of Punjab. Because of your (Nawaz Sharif) illegal direction the Zila Council Lahore had to drop various other projects of public welfare at the cost of the said project in connivance with Shahbaz Sharif.”