New arrests in money laundering case might land Shahbaz Sharif in hot waters

LAHORE: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif could land in hot waters as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore on Tuesday managed to arrest a key accused in a money laundering case filed against the PML-N leader.

According to NAB sources, the arrested accused was identified as Ali Ahmad Khan and was arrested from Islamabad on Tuesday afternoon.

According to NAB sources, the accused was a proclaimed offender and wanted by the bureau for the last couple of years in a TT (money laundering) reference, filed against Shahbaz Sharif.

Khan was charged with being a benamdar of the PML-N president. The accused was involved in money laundering worth billions of rupees through a benami company Good Nature Trading, NAB officials claimed. The former CM Punjab had employed two officials — Imtiaz Gill as Director Political Affairs — and Ali Ahmad Khan as Director Strategy— but these two had no office at the CM Secretariat and rarely interacted with the Secretariat bureaucracy at that time.

Reportedly, these two were mostly seen in the private office of Suleman Shahbaz, younger son of Shahbaz Sharif, at 55H Model Town. They were also found in the Model Town Office of former CM Punjab as well.

Both of these two accused were generally referred to as the class fellows and friends of Suleman Shahbaz. According to sources, both the accused were appointed as directors but against meager salaries of around Rs30,000 a month each.

An accountability court in Lahore had declared Ali Ahmad Khan as a proclaimed offender in the money laundering case. According to NAB sources, Khan was summoned several times during the probe but he didn’t appear. The accused would be produced before an accountability court on Wednesday (tomorrow) for obtaining his physical remand.

In December 2019, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Barrister Shahzad Akbar had claimed that a sophisticated network of money laundering was being run from the former Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat under the patronage of Shahbaz Sharif.

Talking to the media, he had claimed that a sum of over Rs7 billion had been laundered by just one company – Good Nature Trading Company – through 200 fake telegraphic transfers (TTs). He said the assets of Salman Shahbaz had increased by over 8,000 times in the last one decade only.

“A new business empire was established by utilizing the corruption amount through a network of fake TTs, which was totally separate from the Sharif family’s business of Ittefaq Group,” he had claimed.

The Special Assistant to the PM had further shared details of money laundering and the modus operandi of money laundering.

“Shahbaz Sharif established a fake company – Good Nature Trading Company – and appointed his front men Nisar Gill as Director Political Affairs at CM Secretariat and Ali Ahmed as Director Policy. They did money laundering on behalf of Shahbaz family. The fake company was actually run by Salman Shahbaz. The company did Rs7 billion business, that too on papers,” he claimed.

Shahzad Akbar had further claimed that two more characters – Shoaib Qamar and Mansoor Anwar – were also involved in the money laundering network as cash boys. According to Shahzad Akbar, Rs6.8 billion was withdrawn from Good Nature Company’s account and Rs4.7 billion was then injected to another company. The control room was at the former chief minister’s Secretariat, he had claimed.