Lahore: An accountability court on Friday remanded Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz and her cousin, Yousaf Abbas Sharif, in custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) till August 21.
The daughter and nephew of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif were presented in court a day after their arrest by NAB in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case.
AB had requested a 15-day physical remand but the court approved a 12-day physical remand of the two accused.
Maryam was arrested at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail on Thursday when she was visiting her incarcerated father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
At the start of the hearing, accountability court judge Naeem Arshad asked the NAB prosecutor to detail the reasons why the bureau had initiated an inquiry against Maryam.
NAB’s special prosecutors Hafiz Asadullah and Haris Qureshi presented arguments on behalf of the accountability watchdog while Advocate Amjad Pervez defended the PML-N leader and her cousin.
As the hearing went underway, Asadullah said that suspicious transactions had been carried out in Maryam’s bank accounts. He added that the corruption watchdog had summoned her twice but she failed to comply. He reiterated that Maryam was a shareholder of the mill while Abbas had been a shareholder as well as a director.
The NAB counsel said that Maryam did not provide satisfactory answers to their questions, adding that shares that she had purchased in 2008 were later transferred to her father, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in 2015.
