Toshakhana case: NAB officials question Nawaz in Lahore prison

By Muhammad YaseenPublished On 05 Jan 2023

A three-member team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday met former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat prison and handed him a questionnaire related to Toshakhana case.

The anti-graft watchdog had nominated the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo in the Toshakhana luxury vehicles and bulletproof vehicle references.

The NAB team probed Nawaz for an hour before handing him over the questionnaire. Nawaz would now send the questionnaire back to the NAB after consulting his legal team.

Nawaz answered some of the questions while he claimed to have no knowledge about others.

“As a prime minister, it was not my duty to keep a check upon the presents or gifts that I was given. All the presents that I had received as premier, had been submitted in the national treasury,” Nawaz had told the NAB.

The PML-N supremo continued, “As far as vehicles [luxury and bulletproof] are concerned, as the prime minister of Pakistan, it was my legal and constitutional right to use them and its record can be checked.”

Earlier this month, NAB had widened its probe into Toshakhana vehicles case against former president Asif Zardari and had included Nawaz in its investigation after it allegedly found both the leaders involved in taking cars from the government storehouse.

An accountability court later permitted the NAB to investigate Nawaz, who is already behind the bars

An accountability court in 2018, sentenced the former premier to seven-year rigorous imprisonment after finding him guilty in the Al-Azizia reference, one of the three graft cases filed by the NAB in line with an apex court order.

Nawaz and his family members were also convicted in Avenfield case. However, the accountability court judge Muhammad Arshad Malik acquitted Nawaz in Flagship reference.

The Supreme Court on July 28, 2017, had disqualified Nawaz in the Panama Papers case and ordered the NAB to file separate cases which were respectively called Avenfiled, Al-Azizia and Flagship references. For more latest news Pakistan, visit 9newshd.tv