LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif was finally released from jail on bail Friday.
A number of party leaders and workers, including Hamza Shehbaz, Rana Sanaullah and Saad Rafique, gathered outside Kot Lakhpat Jail to welcome their leader. Shehbaz’s personal vehicles also reached the prison.
PML-N leaders had announced that they would not carry out any protest or rally to celebrate Sharif’s release due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The party’s vice president and Sharif’s niece Maryam Nawaz tweeted: “Welcome back home officially too dearest Uncle.”
Earlier, PML-N Lahore Chief Organiser Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz and Malik Saiful Malook Khokhar appeared in the court as guarantors while counsel for Shehbaz submitted the surety bonds of Rs5 million each following which Robkar was issued.
In a statement, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on behalf of Shehbaz urged party workers not to come to Kot Lakhpat Jail for his welcome.
Shehbaz said, “I need your prayers which are more than a welcome. Please stay home as coronavirus spreading fast.”
A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had, on Thursday (April 22), granted bail to the PML-N president in the assets beyond means and money laundering case.
The three-member bench was headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and also comprised of Justice Aalia Neelum and Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi.
During the proceedings, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor had argued that the lawyers of the PML-N leader had presented inappropriate observance in the previous hearing.
After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court granted bail to Shehbaz and directed him to submit two surety bonds worth Rs5 million each.
In the written short order, the full bench had stated that the bail of Shehbaz was approved due to the delay in the trial.
The court also directed Shehbaz to submit two surety bonds of Rs5 million each in the trial court against which the bail was granted.
An accountability court earlier on Friday has issued robkar for the release of the PML-N president from Kot Lakhpat Jail in the money laundering case.
According to details, judge Sheikh Sajjad has accepted the two surety bonds worth Rs5 million each for the release of the PML-N leader.
The LHC on Thursday had approved the post-arrest bail request of Shehbaz in the assets beyond means and money laundering case, wherein the verdict had been announced by a three-member full bench constituted by LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Monday to decide afresh the request after a division bench gave a split decision on it last week.
Headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, the bench comprising Justice Alia Neelum and Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi had resumed hearing on Wednesday.
The new bench had constituted after the members of the division bench issued a split decision on Shehbaz’s bail petition, sending the matter to the Chief Justice Khan for the nomination of a referee judge.
Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar, who had headed the bench, allowed the petition, while its other member, Justice Asjad Javed Ghural, dismissed the same on merits.
Shehbaz had moved the high court for post-arrest bail in the reference — filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) — in March, five months after he was sent to jail on judicial remand by a trial court.
The dirty money watchdog had arrested Shehbaz in September after the LHC denied him further relief of pre-arrest bail in the case.
In his bail request, Shehbaz had alleged the NAB proceedings against him had been prompted by mala fide intention, ulterior motive, and considerations extraneous to law.
He had said that the registration of a series of cases in quick succession against him and his repeated arrests at the behest of the government had been a classic example of misuse of the process of NAB to muffle the voice of the opposition.
He also had said that the bureau failed to collect any evidence of any corruption, kickbacks, misuse of any public office for personal gain by him throughout his political career.
THE CASE:
Sharif, along with his son Punjab Assembly opposition leader and PML-N Vice President Hamza Shehbaz, was indicted in November in the Rs7 billion reference involving charges of money laundering and assets beyond means.
The reference mainly accuses Shehbaz of being a beneficiary of the assets held in the name of his family members and frontmen, who had no sources to acquire such assets.
It says the family members and the frontmen of the family received fake foreign remittances of billions in their personal bank accounts. In addition to these remittances, the bureau says, billions of rupees were laundered by way of foreign pay orders, which were deposited in the personal bank accounts of Hamza and his brother Suleman Shehbaz.
The reference further says Shehbaz and his family failed to justify the sources of funds used for the acquisition of assets.
