Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif questioned in Pakistani corruption probe

The former prime minister of Pakistan will today give evidence to an anti-corruption probe into his family’s financial affairs, preparing the ground for the largest and most controversial criminal trial in the country's history.

A team of investigators from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-graft agency, will visit Nawaz Sharif at home in Lahore to take a statement regarding allegations that one of his family’s steel mills was used as a front for money-laundering.

In July, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the NAB to open several criminal cases against Mr Sharif, after ruling that he was unfit to hold office. 

"The NAB investigation is a leap forward for Pakistan," a spokesman for the ex-cricketer and opposition leader Imran Khan told the Telegraph. "But we have deep apprehensions, as in the past (the organisation) has been completely subservient to Sharif and his government."

Mr Sharif, who denies all the charges, has whipped up supporters by repeatedly pointing out that the Supreme Court’s decision to oust him rested on a technicality involving electoral forms and not the meatier allegations of corruption prompted by the release of the Panama Papers last year.

To date the NAB has indeed proven unwilling to take up cases against the powerful.

The agency has acquitted former prime minister Asif Zardari, known as “Mr 10 per cent” for the kickback fee he allegedly charged on government contracts, on five of six charges against him.

It has so far refused the Supreme Court’s request to reopen an investigation into the Hudaibiya Paper Mills, the most potentially explosive case against the Sharif family.

Yet in its July 28 judgement, the Supreme Court declared that one of its justices would supervise the NAB process to prevent backsliding.

Mr Sharif’s lawyer, in a petition seeking a review of the verdict, claims this denies his client the right to a fair trail.

The criminal trial must be completed within six months. If found guilty, Mr Sharif would be imprisoned for the second time in his political career and could forfeit the four Park Lane flats he allegedly bought with ill-gotten gains.