LAHORE: An FIA team on Tuesday served a summons of a special court (Central-I) at the Model Town residence of Leader of Opposition in NA Shehbaz Sharif for his appearance in trial proceedings of a sugar scam and money laundering inquiry.

Shehbaz and his son Hamza are on pre-arrest bail till Feb 10 granted by the trial court.

A lawyer said the service of the summons issued under section 68 of the CrPC was a legal requirement after the submission of challan (investigation report) by the prosecution before the trial court.

The summons was received by the security staff at Shehbaz’s residence. The summons required Shehbaz to appear in person or through a counsel before the court on Feb 10 and also present his witnesses if he wanted to contest the trial.

The FIA had registered a case against Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman in November 2020 under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34 and 109 of the PPC and 5(2) and 5(3) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of the Anti Money Laundering Act.

Initially, Shehbaz and Hamza got pre-arrest bail from a special court for banking offences, however, later had to approach the special court (Central-I) after the former court decided a question of jurisdiction raised by the prosecution.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2022