LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore on Saturday announced to formally indict Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, and his son Hamza Shehbaz in a mega money-laundering case at the next hearing scheduled for September 7.
Sharif and members of his family are facing charges of laundering at least Rs16 billion using accounts operated in the name of their businesses and employees, according to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The agency has nominated Sharif and his sons — Hamza and Suleman Shehbaz — as the principal accused in the case. 14 others have been named in the first information report (FIR) under sections 5(2) and 5(3) (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, read with 3-4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
While Shehbaz is no longer chief minister of Punjab, his father is expected to request parliamentary immunity from prosecution as he did in the hearings held after he assumed the office of the prime minister following a contentious no-confidence vote against his predecessor, Imran Khan, in April.
During the proceedings today, property details of Suleman, who was declared a proclaimed offender in the multi-billion-rupee money laundering case, were submitted to Special Court (Central-I) judge Ijaz Hassan Awan who chaired the proceedings of the case.
The reference mainly accused 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 said the members and benamidars 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 Sharif’s two sons.
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.
