Hasan Nawaz declared bankrupt after failing to clear tax liabilities in UK

Hassan Nawaz, son of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has been declared bankrupt by the High Court of Justice in London after he failed to clear his tax liabilities, Geo News correspondent Murtaza Ali Shah reported on November 17.

The UK Gazette, an official public record journal, published the details of Hasan’s bankruptcy.

The Gazette stated that Hasan Nawaz, who resides in Flat 17 Avenfield House, 118 Park Lane in London, while serving as a company director, has been declared bankrupt under case number 694 of 2023.

The petition was filed last year on August 25, 2023, and the bankruptcy order was issued on April 29, 2024, after a case brought forward by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The petition brought forward last year against Nawaz’s son in London claimed that he had unpaid debts and liabilities as the basis for the action.

Dawn reported that under UK law, a bankruptcy order restricts an individual from acting as a company director or managing businesses without court approval until the individual is discharged from bankruptcy. Hasan Nawaz, however, continues to act as a director of multiple companies in the UK.

Previously, in 2018, the two were declared proclaimed offenders after they failed to join the investigation in Avenfield Apartment, Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references filed by the National Account­ability Bureau (NAB).

Both then left Pakistan after they were named in high-profile corruption cases the same year. They were declared proclaimed offenders for not joining the investigation and court proceedings, and subsequently, their arrest warrants were issued.

In April 2024, Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz were formally acquitted in three corruption cases related to the Panama Papers.

After an accountability court suspended their warrants this year, both returned to Pakistan quietly on March 12, ending their six-year-long self-imposed exile in London.

After their acquittal, the NAB prosecutors did not file appeals against the acquittal orders of Sharif’s son.

The NAB prosecutor informed the court that the cases did not fall under the amendments to the NAB laws, adding that Nawaz, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and her husband, Captain (retd) Safdar, had already been acquitted in the cases against them.

Noting that the accountability bureau had not filed an appeal against Maryam’s acquittal, the lawyer said it was based on the “same documents” on which her father was freed of the charges.