LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday granted bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President and Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz in a case pertaining to money laundering to the tune of Rs7 billion.
A two-judge bench of the LHC also directed the prison authorities to release the politician after the submission of surety bonds.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had arrested Hamza in June 2019 from the LHC premise after the high court rejected his request for an extension in pre-arrest bail in the Ramzan Sugar Mills and the money laundering cases.
The Ramzan Sugar Mills reference claims that Sharif, in his capacity as Punjab chief minister, used public funds for the construction of a bridge to facilitate his family-owned sugar mills.
On February 2, he had filed his second petition before the LHC for bail on merit in the case which involves charges of assets beyond means.
The bail had also been sought on an additional ground of hardship and inordinate delay in the trial proceedings as the Supreme Court (SC) in January denied relief to him with a direction to approach the LHC with fresh grounds for bail.
The petition, filed through advocates Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervaiz, adopted the stance that the reference was filed 14 months after his arrest in June 2019. Keeping an accused in jail for this long is equivalent to sentencing them before the trial, it had stated.
It further argued that the petitioner was entitled to bail on this ground of delay alone without touching the merits of the case.
During the hearing on Wednesday, Faisal Bukhari, the counsel for NAB, argued against granting bail.
In his arguments, he said the opposition leader’s assets in 2003 amounted only to a few hundred thousand which ballooned to Rs523 million in 2018.
“Millions [of rupees] have come in Hamza Shehbaz’s personal accounts illegally. An inquiry into money laundering and assets beyond means was started during the tenure of the PML-N government. Notices were issued to Hamza Shehbaz but he did not provide answers [on where he got] any amount,” he said.
NAB filed the reference in 2020 after the investigation was completed, he said, adding that of the 20 people who were named in the reference, six had become absconders while four turned approvers in the case.
The accused were indicted in November 2020 and the trial was ongoing, Bukhari further said. He reminded the court that the LHC had previously rejected Hamza’s bail.
“Hamza Shehbaz received more than Rs81m telegraphic transfers (TTs) from abroad. He has not disclosed the source of his money till today.”
The NAB counsel also presented a chart from the anti-graft watchdog on money laundering. “A money laundering network was operated in Model Town (Lahore). TTs were sent in the name of Nusrat Shehbaz, Hamza Shehbaz, Rabiya Imran, Javeria Ali, and Suleman Shehbaz. After receiving the TTs, Hamza and Suleman Shehbaz invested [the money] in different ventures.”
Giving further details, Bukhari said Mushtaq Cheeni deposited a “fake loan” of several hundred thousands in Hamza’s account. “Some papad wala and some doodh wala (milkman) kept sending money into his account. The poor papad wala did not even know how his identity card and bank account were being used.”
He claimed that Hamza was a beneficiary of money laundering.
“Merit is also seen in a case and not just hardship. Hamza’s lawyer has taken three [adjournments] in the trial and it will be delayed as a result. NAB has not asked for even one adjournment till today,” Bukhari added.
THE CASE:
The reference mainly accused Shehbaz of being a beneficiary of assets held in the name of his family members and 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 Suleman.
The reference further said the family of Shahbaz failed to justify the sources of funds used for the acquisition of assets.
It said the suspects committed offenses of corruption and corrupt practices as envisaged under the provisions of 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.
In November, Hamza and his father National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz were indicted in the reference. All the accused in the case, including Shehbaz’s wife Nusrat Shabaz and daughters, pleaded not guilty.
Shehbaz, while rejecting allegations of the anti-graft watchdog, claimed he was being politically victimised.
