Title: Shehbaz Sharif is a ‘money-laundering kingpin’: PM’s aide
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Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar has described PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif as “ringleader of money-laundering gang”, claiming that he and his son Hamza had been found involved in corruption and money laundering of Rs16 billion in Ramzan Sugar Mills case.
The challan submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against the two members of the Sharif family – Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz – in the Ramzan Sugar Mills money-laundering case consisted of more than 4,000 documents and 100 witnesses, the PM’s aide said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Friday.
He further claimed that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) also found Shehbaz involved in money laundering and according to the FIA charge-sheet, Akbar said Shehbaz was the mastermind of the money laundering group.
He said the modus operandi used in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case was again used in the Ramzan Sugar Mills. He said that Shehbaz got relief in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case on technical grounds, not on merit.
Akbar said billions of rupees were laundered through the accounts of low-wage employees of Ramzan Sugar Mills.
The PM’s adviser went on to say that Shehbaz opened 28 benamidar [fake] accounts for money-laundering between 2008 and 2018 during his tenure as the chief minister of Punjab.
He said the salary certificates of those employees were part of the bank record under the ‘know your customer (KYC)’ regime.
Akbar said the employees also confessed during the investigation that the bank accounts were opened in their names and the cheque books and other belongings were taken over from them.
Also read: FIA to submit challan against Shehbaz on Dec 11
He said the account opening was a condition after getting a job at the sugar mill.
He added that the amount of Rs16 billion was deposited in the accounts by grocery shops owners, schoolteachers, hardware shops, auto-parts dealers, chicken suppliers, etc.
The salaries of the employees varied between Rs5,000 and 30,000; however, the transactions in the accounts were worth billions of rupees.
He said a cheque worth Rs5 million was deposited in the account of peon Gulzar Ahmed through a man named Aurangzeb Butt.
The total transactions done in the account were worth over Rs1 billion, adding that the salary of Aurangzeb Butt was around Rs10,000 only.
He said Aurangzeb Butt confessed in an interview at a television programme that he gave that money in the party fund. However, Akbar said the question was how the money given for the party fund went into the account of a peon.
Masroor Anwar, who was a suspect in the case and a personal cashier of Shehbaz Sharif, withdrew this money and deposited it in accounts of Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz, he said.
He said peon Malik Maqsood had seven accounts and transactions worth Rs3.7 billion were done in it while transactions worth over Rs1.7 billion were carried out from the account of cashier Aslam.
He added that peon Gulzar Ahmed died in 2015; however, the transactions continued and Masroor Anwar kept withdrawing the money until 2017-2018.
He said all benamidar [fake] accounts were shut down when Shehbaz Sharif’s tenure as the chief minister ended.
Also read: LHC grants bail to Shehbaz Sharif in money laundering case
He added that the FIA had submitted challan and the process to file charge-sheet process would begin from the next hearing.
To a question, he said people of the country wanted that such big cases of corruption and money laundering should be decided and justice should be done without lingering the proceedings.
The PTI government is committed to holding the corrupt accountable and it was taking all-out steps in that regard; however, support of other stakeholders was necessary to achieve the objective, he added.
Published Date: 17-Dec-2021
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