LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday denied post-arrest bail to Shahid Rafiq, an alleged frontman of Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, in a money laundering case.

Rafiq through a counsel submitted before a two-judge bench that he had been accused of making transactions of millions of rupees in the Sharif family’s accounts from the United Kingdom. He said the NAB implicated the petitioner on the basis of false and ill-founded allegations.

The counsel asked the bench to release the petitioner on bail as he was no more required for investigation and keeping him behind the bars would serve no purpose.

On the other side, a NAB prosecutor opposed the bail and stated that the petitioner was involved in transferring ill-gotten money for the Sharif family. He said documents proved that the petitioner had been running a money exchange company only to launder money for the Sharifs.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi dismissed the bail petition.

Another suspect in the case namely Mushtaq Cheeni had turned approver against Hamza and his brother Salman.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2019