By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Wednesday returned the Toshakhana reference against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Zardari, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for not being in the NAB purview.
Judge Muhammed Bashir heard the case as an administrative judge and returned the Toshakhana reference to NAB. The court observed that after the amendments in the NAB Ordinance, a case could not be registered on an amount less than Rs 500 million. The court had, earlier declared Nawaz Sharif a proclaimed offender due to his continuous absence in the Toshakhana case.
Ghani Majeed and Khwaja Anwar Majeed of the Omni group are also among the beneficiaries of the NAB amendments in the immediate case.
PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and the former prime minister had filed a petition under the amendments in the NAB Ordinance. The accused were blamed for irregularities amounting to Rs 110 million. The court ordered National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to withdraw the reference.
Toshakhana reference against Zardari, others
The National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference against former President Asif Ali Zardari, former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gilani and two others over charges of getting luxury vehicles and gifts from Toshakhana in an illegal manner. In January 2020, the members of the executive board in a meeting chaired by NAB chairman Justice Retd Javed Iqbal approved three references against the former premiers and ex-president Asif Ali Zardari. A reference was also filed against Anwar Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed for paying the taxes of the luxury vehicles imported via Toshakhana.
According to the reference, the former president kept the luxury vehicles given as gifts by the UAE and Libya instead of handing them over to Toshakhana and also paid the tax amounts using fake bank accounts. It said that former PM Gilani gave undue favour to the president and Nawaz Sharif during his tenure.
