LONDON, (DNA) – Finance Minister Ishaq Dar termed National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s plea to reopen the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case as illogical and against the law.

Dar made the comments on Thursday while responding to NAB’s appeal against an LHC order to quash an investigation into the Rs1.2 billion Hudabiya Paper Mills scam against the Sharif family.

He said that considering the LHC previously ruled in his favour and even the SC had not ordered the concerned authorities to start the investigation anew, NAB’s request is incomprehensible.

Almost 17 years ago, NAB had claimed that Sharif and his family received over Rs1 billion ‘through illegal and fraudulent means’ and that they were liable to be tried under anti-corruption laws. In 2014, the LHC quashed the Hudabiya Paper Mills reference against the Sharifs.

After the passage of three years, NAB filed an appeal against LHC order in September 2017.

In its appeal, NAB says the referee judge was not competent to set aside the findings of the high court in which NAB had been allowed to re-initiate investigations against Sharif family members.

Hudabiya Paper Mills: SC seeks details of 17-year-old money laundering case

Dar was nominated as an accused in the initial reference, but NAB’s final reference excluded him after he recorded a confession.

There was an unexplained investment of Rs642.743m appearing in the mill’s books as share deposit money. “This belonged to the directors, shareholders, and beneficial owners of the company, which they had fraudulently amassed under the garb of foreign equity investment,” said the final reference.

It said that in 1999, the company settled a loan with London-based Al-Towfeek Company for investment funds by making a payment of $8.7 million. The source of this payment also appeared to be questionable.