LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday granted transit remand of an alleged front man of Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz and his brother Salman Shahbaz to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for his appearance before its chairman.

The NAB officials produced Mushtaq Chene before the court and stated that the suspect agreed to become an approver in the money laundering case against Hamza and Salman.

A prosecutor told the court that transit remand of the suspect was required to record his statement before the NAB chairman in Islamabad. Therefore, he asked the court to grant two-day transit remand of the suspect, which was duly allowed.

The NAB alleged that suspect Chene used to transfer foreign remittances in the bank accounts of Hamza and Salman. It said the suspect transferred over Rs500 million to the duo through his five bank accounts.

In this case, the NAB recently arrested Hamza and also obtained his physical remand while Salman is still out of country.

The bureau alleged that Hamza maintained various accounts in different banks in which credit turnover of Rs500 million was observed during the years 2006 to 2017. It said the suspect during 2012 to 2015 acquired various commercial and residential properties in Johar Town and Judicial Colony of Lahore valuing around Rs167 million.

It said the evidence revealed that in 2003 the total wealth of the suspect was Rs18.962 million that increased up to Rs411 million in 2017 without having proportionate sources of income.

The bureau claimed that Hamza received fictitious foreign remittances of Rs181 million in one of his bank accounts, Rs2.11 billion in the accounts of his brother Salman, mother Nusrat, benamidars and employees of their companies.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2019