NAB team to record Sharif's statement; purchase of over 30 bulletproof vehicles

Lahore: A team of Pakistan's top anti-graft body will quiz deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Kot Lakhpat Jail here on Monday over the illegal purchase and use of more than 30 bulletproof government vehicles from Germany.

The four-member National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team has arrived at the Kot Lakhpat Jail (Lahore Central Prison) where the 69-year-old Sharif is serving a seven-year sentence awarded to him in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case.

The team will record the three-time prime minister's statement in the case of an alleged import of 34 bulletproof vehicles from Germany without payment of customs duty on any of them.

The anti-graft body said the cars were purchased without duty for guests of the 19th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit in 2016, Geo News reported.

According to NAB, Sharif added 20 of those 34 cars to his own motorcade, and he and his daughter Maryam Nawaz also used the vehicles for their personal use.

Former Prime Minister and a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's statement has already been recorded, it said.

The anti-graft body also said that officers associated with the foreign ministry misused their authority by allocating the bulletproof cars for the Sharif's family.

Sharif was imprisoned in Adiyala Jail and shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail on request.

He has been serving a seven-year prison term at the jail since December 24, 2018 when an accountability court convicted him in one of the three corruption cases filed in the wake of the apex court's July 28, 2017 order in Panama Papers case.

Sharif and his family have denied any wrongdoing and allege that the corruption cases against them were politically motivated.