From Abid Usman
LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) revealed on Friday that Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, who is in the bureau’s custody in the money laundering and asset beyond means case, bought four flats in London’s upscale neighbourhoods while being in exile.
According to details of the PML-N president’s London properties released by the corruption watchdog, he purchased four flats for over £1.3 million and borrowed the amount from Barkley Bank, businessmen, and niece Asma Dar.
He purchased a flat in London’s Upper Barkley Street area for £235,000 in 2005, the bureau disclosed. He borrowed £75,000 from a businessman and got a £160,000 loan from Barkley Bank to cover the cost of the flat.
Later in 2007, Shehbaz Sharif purchased another flat in the British capital for £160,000, and this time, he also borrowed £16,075 from a businessman and arranged the rest of the amount through a bank loan worth £143,000 to pay the cost.
He bought the third flat for £650,000 in the same year, for which he took a £40,000 loan from a businessman and £647,114 from Barkley Bank. Of the total cost of the fourth flat he bought for £286,007 in 2009, he borrowed £230,607 from a businessman and £55,400 from a close relative.
