Background of Sharif Family Case: What is Hudaibiya Paper Mills Scandal Case?

ISLAMABAD: Sharif family is in the dock again in Rs1.24 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills scam, prepared over 17 years ago by the anti-graft body under the then dictator General (R) Pervez Musharraf.

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On Monday, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan will hear the appeal of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the three-year-old decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) quashing the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case against the members of Sharif family.

The original reference was filed in March 2000 before an Accountability Court against Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif for accumulating wealth beyond their means to the tune of Rs1.24 billion using the Hudaibiya Mills. The other accused, who constituted the management of Hudabiya Paper Mills, included Maryam and Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, third Sharif brother Abbas Sharif and Abbas’s wife Sabiha. As per the NAB investigation report in the original reference, the Sharif family had allegedly deposited ill-gotten money in bank accounts opened in other people’s names and used it to pay off loans of their companies.  The reference, however, was shelved after the Sharif brothers went into exile in December of the same year.

In 2011, the respondents filed a writ petition before the Lahore High Court (LHC) to have the reference quashed. In October the same year, a Rawalpindi division bench of the LHC restrained the accountability court from proceedings in the matter.

However, on the matter of reinvestigation, there was a split decision over the competence of NAB to reinitiate proceedings against the petitioners in accordance with the law, and the matter was sent to the chief justice of Pakistan, who in turn referred it to the referee judge for a final verdict.

In May 2014, the referee judge quashed the reference and at that time NAB made no effort to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court. The court observed that NAB had not given proper opportunity to the Sharif family to join the investigations and justify their assets.

On September 20 this year, NAB challenged the LHC judgment claiming that fresh evidence had emerged against the accused in the wake of the PanamaLeaks probe by a six-member JIT.

NAB Prosecutor General Waqas Qadeer Dar filed the petition under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution making all the members of Sharif family as respondents.

Earlier this year, NAB had assured the apex court it would file the appeal during the hearing of Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid's petition in the court seeking re-opening of the case.

The matter was heard by the five-member bench, headed by Justice Khosa, that was hearing review petitions against the court's July 28 judgment in the Panama Papers case. Rashid had submitted a petition in the apex court which stated that on July 21, during the hearing of the Panama Papers case, NAB had informed the apex court it would reply in seven days regarding the reopening of the Hudaibiya case.

In 2000, NAB filed two references in the Hudabiya case. Incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was nominated as an accused in the initial reference, but NAB excluded his name from the final reference after he recorded a confessional statement implicating the Sharifs.