Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz vice president Maryam Nawaz was questioned by the country's anti-corruption agency officials in connection with the alleged money laundering and income beyond means charges against her and her family, a media report said on Thursday.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) questioned 45-year-old Maryam on Wednesday about her "dubious" transactions in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM), where she is a major stakeholder, the Dawn newspaper reported.
In her 45-minute statement, Maryam, daughter of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said all details are available in the report of the Joint Investigation Team formed to probe the Panama Papers, a source told the newspaper.
The NAB has asked Maryam to again appear on August 8, with details of her holding in CSM and financial relations with UK citizen Sheikh Zakauddin, Saudi national Hani Ahmad Jamjoon and UAE nationals Saeed Said bin Jabar al Suweidi and Naseer Abdullah Lootah, the report said.
In January 2018, the government's financial monitoring unit reported a suspicious transaction involving billions of Pakistani rupees in Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd, the report stated.
"The NAB inquiry started in October 2018 detected that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and the family of the late Abbas Sharif are shareholders in the company along with some foreigners of the UAE and the UK," the source was quoted as saying in the report.
After returning from the NAB office, Nawaz tweeted, "Back from NAB. Told them the questions about family business have been asked & answered a zillion times & nothing found even by agenda-driven JIT. But since the aim is to use NAB as a tool to harass & victimise, the theatre of the absurd continues."
"NAB has nothing substantive to ask. No allegation or even remote mention of any corruption, all matters inquired about over & over again pertain to the family business & even in that NOTHING illegal has ever been pointed out or committed. Selected desperately is moving in circles," she said in another tweet.
Meanwhile, PML-N workers greeted Maryam outside the Thokar Niaz Baig office of the NAB. They showered rose petals on her car and raised slogans in support. The NAB had also summoned her "absconding" brothers Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz for Wednesday’s investigation. However, both are in London.
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