With his assets growing rapidly Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has joined the list of a very few lawmakers who are billionaires, according to statements of assets and liabilities of parliamentarians for the year 2012-13 released by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The net value of assets owned by Mr Sharif rises to Rs1.71 billion from Rs261.6 million he had declared at the time of filing nomination papers for the May elections.
He has put the current value of his six agricultural properties (over 1,700 kanals) in Lahore and Sheikhupura at Rs1.08bn and that of a house in Upper Mall, Lahore, at Rs250m. His wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, owns a bungalow on Hall Road in Murree worth Rs100m. She owes Rs1.75m to two individuals.
Prime Minister Sharif owns Abbas and Company, a business venture started with an amount of Rs10,000. The company’s present value is shown as unchanged, but a loan of Rs84,485 is outstanding against it. He possesses shares worth Rs33m in nine industrial units. He has received Rs197.4m remittances from his son Hussain Nawaz.
Mr Sharif owns two Mercedes cars, a Land Cruiser and a tractor. He and his wife have Rs138m in 10 bank accounts.
The other billionaires in the National Assembly are Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and three members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – Khial Zaman, Raja Amir Zaman and Sajid Hussain Tori.
Khaqan Abbasi has Rs900m shares in a private airline. The value of his inherited property is Rs100m. He has Rs2m in three bank accounts and Rs500,000 cash in hand.
Sajid Tori owns 10 properties and has described the market value of only one of them as “billions of rupees”.
Khial Zaman has put the value of his assets at Rs2.35bn. He owns four properties abroad worth Rs1.2bn.
Amir Zaman owns nine properties amounting to Rs1.88bn. He owns a plaza in F-8 Islamabad worth Rs800m, a house in F-7 Islamabad (Rs600m), shops and flats in Rawalpindi (Rs350m) and shops in G-9 Islamabad (Rs120m).
BNP-Awami chief Mir Israrullah Zehri owns over 51,000 acres of land. He also owns bungalows in Karachi and Quetta and has Rs1m in his bank account.
Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao owns assets worth little over Rs53m, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Rs7.3m, Farooq Sattar of the MQM Rs3.6m, PML-Z chief Ejazul Haq Rs10m and Pir Sadruddin Shah of the PML-F Rs395m.
Mehmood Khan Achakzai has agricultural income of Rs20m a year. He has two bullet-proof cars and four rifles.
Retired Captain Safdar, son-in-law of Prime Minister Sharif, has also mentioned in his assets a BMW car gifted to his wife by someone in the UAE.
NO CARS: A number of lawmakers in their statements say they do not own cars, despite having assets and financial inflows. They are: Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, Sindh chief minister’s daughter Nafeesa Shah, Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, KP’s former chief minister Akram Durrani, Saleem Rehman, Sardar Mohammad Zaman, Sar Zaman, Murad Saeed, Mohammad Nazir, Jamaluddin, Shahjee Gul Afridi, Nasir Khan, Chaudhry Asim Nazeer, Shahbaz Babar, Mohammad Farooq, Mohammad Afzal Khan, Azhar Qayum, Kiran Haider, Tahira Bukhari and Naeem Kishwar.
Courtesy: www.dawn.com
Report by by Iftikhar A. Khan & Kalbe Ali