LAHORE: A banking court in Lahore on Saturday extended the interim bails of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz in a case pertaining to money laundering.
Both Sharif and his son appeared before the court for the hearing presided over by Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Aslam Gondal who extended the bail period until September 25.
During the proceedings, Sharif told the court the probe was initiated by the National Accountability Bureau but now the Federal Investigation Agency has also joined it.
The reference mainly accuses Sharif of being a beneficiary of assets held in the name of his family members and benamidars who had no sources to acquire such assets. It says the suspects committed offences of corruption and corrupt practices as envisaged under the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and money laundering as delineated in the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
A total of 20 people had been nominated in the reference, including four approvers Yasir Mushtaq, Muhammad Mushtaq, Shahid Rafiq and Aftab Mahmood.
The main suspects are Sharif’s wife Nusrat, his two sons Shehbaz and Suleman (absconder), and his daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali.
According to NAB, Sharif accumulated assets worth Rs7,328 million — which are disproportionate to his known sources of income — “in connivance with his co-accused family members, benamidars, front persons and close associates […] developed an organised system of money laundering”.
The accountability watchdog further said that the accused in the case had “created fake/fictitious sources of income” in order to “justify the assets” which are beyond their known sources of income.
Sharif was arrested in October 2018, in other cases — Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme.
