PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s eldest son Hussain has said his sister’s acquittal in the Avenfield Reference by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was a victory for “fair play” and also a reminder of how his father and Maryam were jailed in 2018 in bogus cases to manipulate the elections.
Hussain welcomed IHC’s decision which set aside the convictions of Maryam and her husband Captain Safdar.
The son of the former prime minister claimed that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were “never interested in finding the real and actual answers regarding the purchase of the Avenfield flats in the mid-1990s because their objective was to target, humiliate and jail Maryam and Nawaz to engineer the political process.”
“When you resort to unnatural actions, the outcome is unnatural too. An attempt was made to link our grandfather Mian Sharif’s assets to Nawaz Sharif when it was clear that Mian Sharif was not a public office holder. These flats were acquired by Mian Sharif. If these investigations were turned towards Mian Sharif then all answers would be found and answered but the JIT was not interested in those answers. They were interested only in victimising Nawaz, to target him and to target his politics,” said Hussain.
Hussain said that Mian Sharif started his businesses in the late 1930s and early 1940s, before the creation of Pakistan, and set up several companies as his business empire expanded.
While sharing details, the eldest son of Nawaz said that the “Ittefaq Foundries” was set up before Pakistan’s creation. It used to be in Lahore city and later it was moved to Kot Lakhpat where the factory was started, he added.
“Mian Sharif had around 32 companies which were registered including Ittefaq Foundries Ltd, Ittefaq Brothers Ltd, Brothers Steel ltd, Ilyas Enterprises Ltd, Ittefaq Sugar Mills Ltd, Ramzan Sugar Mills Ltd, Chaudhary Sugar Mills Ltd. The textile business isn’t included in this list,” he said.