Broadsheet pays APS20,000 in legal costs to Sharif family after withdrawing Avenfield claim.

Byline: Atika Rehman

UK-based asset recovery firm Broadsheet LLC has paid 20,000 pounds in legal costs to the family of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif after withdrawing its claim over the Sharif family's Avenfield property in London, it emerged on Tuesday.

Broadsheet LLC was engaged by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 2000 to trace offshore assets of Pakistani nationals but the agreement was cancelled in 2003. The government last year paid $28 million to the firm in damages.

The firm had earlier also laid claim to four flats at Avenfield House to enforce the payment of the outstanding $22m owed to the firm by NAB. However, the claim was ordered as discharged by a London court.

Broadsheet withdrew its claim over the Avenfield flats after securing the payment from the Pakistani government, but ended up paying APS20,000 for the Sharif family's legal costs. It is usual in the British legal system for a party's legal team to pay the other side after losing a case or if the side that initiated a claim asks the court to withdraw.

Documents available with Dawn confirmed that Broadsheet LLC has paid the Sharif family APS20,000.

Commenting on the development, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz termed the payment by Broadsheet "another hard slap on the face of the clique of liars and mudslingers".

"Broadsheet had to pay Rs4.5 million to the lawyers of Nawaz Sharif for raising questions about the London flats and then running away from the court," she tweeted. "One ends up suffering such consequences in the game of lies and deceit. Any shame?"

In another tweet, she retorted that government authorities "had gone to catch corruption but got themselves out of the mess by paying Rs4.5m".

Maryam said while Broadsheet had been humiliated for its "false allegations" in court, "the accountability of those people remains who kept squandering the Pakistani nation's money in the war of their personal ego, those who used to meet Broadsheet officials and ask for their share. All facts will become apparent to the nation now."

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