Islamabad: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday gave a clean chit to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in the Toshakhana vehicle reference.
The anti-graft body, in its report, has requested an accountability court in Islamabad to acquit the former premier. The court had directed NAB to include the PML-N leader in the investigation.
The court may acquit Nawaz Sharif from the Toshakhana reference, the watchdog stated in its report submitted before the court today, highlighting that the car in question was not a part of the Toshakhana at the time of purchase by the former prime minister.
The Toshakhana is a government department that stores gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and officials by heads of other governments, states, and foreign dignitaries.
According to the case filed by NAB, then-prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in order to extend illegal benefits to Nawaz and then-president Asif Ali Zardari, allegedly allowed the retention of vehicles gifted to them by different foreign states and dignitaries by relaxing procedures related to the submission of gifts in the Toshakhana.
The development comes a month after NAB sought respite from the graft court in Islamabad for submission of the report in the Toshakhana case against President Asif Ali Zardari, former premiers Nawaz and Gilani, and others.