LAHORE: The prime minister and his son and Punjab chief minister Saturday obtained interim bails from a special court in Lahore in a reference accusing them of laundering billions of rupees out of Pakistan, claiming they were innocent and the complaint against them was politically motivated.
Shehbaz Sharif and members of his family, including Hamza Shehbaz, are facing charges of money laundering of at least Rs16 billion using accounts operated in the name of their businesses and low-level employees, according to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Both Sharif and Shehbaz appeared before the court in the money laundering case.
At the outset of the proceedings, Sharif went to the rostrum and requested Special Court (Central-I) judge Ijaz Hassan Awan to “let me explain the truth about his bail” in the case.
He said there was nothing new in the case as both National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and FIA cases were the same [agencies] in nature. He said the authorities made Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases against him.
The dirty money watchdog alleges that Sharif and Shahbaz have “fraudulently and dishonestly” caused a Rs213 million loss to the national exchequer in the latter reference.
The judge asked if the prime minister did not hold shares in the sugar production business operated by his family. On this, Sharif replied in the negative, saying: “I’m neither a director nor owner, or even a shareholder in the mills. And I was wrongfully accused of abusing power in the housing society case.”
He said the Lahore High Court (LHC) had already given a verdict in his favour. He said the NAB challenged his bail in the Supreme Court. “But the anti-graft watchdog faced embarrassment when the top court chided it for lack of evidence,” he told the judge.
Sharif said that after spending his days in a NAB prison, he verbally informed the FIA of all the facts. He contended the courts decided his cases on merit and he was acquitted.
He said the FIA was reprimanded for not presenting a charge sheet against him in court. He alleged the agency was in fact delaying the charge sheet in order to find a way to arrest him.
During the hearing, a report regarding non-bailable arrest warrants for Sharif’s son Salman Shehbaz and two other accused was also submitted to the court.
According to the report, Salman was not found at his home address of Jati Umra as he had fled to London and never returned. The other two accused also had not been served with warrants as Malik Maqsood Ahmad — frequently referred to as Maqsood Chaprasi — died under mysterious circumstances in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Tahir Naqvi was out of the country.
The court was informed that a letter had been written to the relevant agency for the confirmation of Ahmad’s death.
The judge, however, ordered the FIA to initiate proceedings to declare Salman and Naqvi as proclaimed offenders.
‘DIAMONDS FOR NRO’
Meanwhile, talking to the media after the hearing, Punjab government spokesperson Attaullah Tarar lashed out at former prime minister Imran Khan. He said consultants be called for the medical examination of the Khan’s mental health.
He said former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar threw away billions of rupees in subsidies to the “sugar mafia”.
He accused the former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government of accepting diamonds for quashing court cases against its rivals. He also accused the party of giving tax amnesty to its beneficiaries.
Tarar alleged the past rulers minted millions by transferring and posting civil servants.
THE REFERENCE
The reference mainly accused Sharif of being a beneficiary of assets held in the name of his family members and benamidars (frontmen), who had no sources to acquire such assets.
It said the family members and frontmen of the Shehbaz family received fake foreign remittances of billions in their personal bank accounts. In addition to these remittances, the bureau said, 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 said that the family of Shehbaz failed to justify the sources of funds used for the acquisition of assets.
It said 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. It asked the trial court to try the suspects and punish them under the law.
