Sharif's family members, who are part of Pakistan's small billionaire club, have declared assets worth Rs 676.8 billion, but Sharif and his brother and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif ``filed a zero income tax and deficit wealth tax returns last year'', the daily said.

Documentary evidence showed that Sharif declared his individual income tax liability at the end 1997-98 fiscal in June 1998 as nil because, according to his own declaration, his total wealth was Rs 2.1 million, but the total admissible debt were shown as Rs 6.4 million, it said. Interestingly, Sharif's wealth was shown in deficit as per his declaration, the newspaper said, adding that Shahbaz also filed a deficit tax return, thus avoiding anytax.

Significantly, a survey conducted by the country's noted financial journalist Shahidur Rehman for his book Who Owns Pakistan last year showed that three members of the Sharif family, including the deposed premier and Shahbaz, were among the 10 richest Pakistanis, The News said.

The daily reported that the 11-member Sharif family holds a gross wealth of Rs 676.8 billion as per their income tax returns, but both Nawaz and Shahbaz paid no tax. The tax returns filed by the Sharif family members showed that most of their industrial concerns were running in losses.

Whatever meagre income tax was declared was computed on salaries paid to the directors of the Sharif family's business units or on the dividend paid by a sugar mill of the group, the daily said.

The entire family, however, paid a nominal income tax of Rs 2.5 lakh, wealth tax of Rs 5.5 lakh and agriculture tax of Rs 1.3 lakh, considering their vast assets and properties of at least 23 sugar and textile mills and huge agricultural land,it said. The tax evasion by the deposed premier's family was the reason that the donor agencies giving aid to Pakistan insisted on publishing tax records of all lawmakers and senior bureaucrats, The News said, adding that for this reason, the donor agencies insisted on broadening the tax net to prop up government revenues.

Only one per cent of the population pays tax in Pakistan and the tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio does not exceed 10 per cent as against an average 18 per cent of the Third World countries. The military rulers on Tuesday moved swiftly to freeze the bank accounts, both foreign and local, of all politicians to stop flight of money outside Pakistan, it said.

The army raided the offices of Sharif's Hudaibiya Sugar Mills and Brother Sugar Mills in Lahore yesterday and seized all documents, the daily said.