LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday adjourned hearings of two references against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son former chief minister Hamza Shehbaz.

Both Shehbaz and Hamza did not appear before the court and filed applications for one-time exemption from personal appearance through their counsel.

An application said PM Shehbaz was preoccupied in Islamabad in connection with various matters due to which he was unable to appear before the court.

However, Advocate Nawaz Chaudhry appeared before the court as an authorised pleader of Shehbaz.

Another application said Hamza had to travel to the United Kingdom to attend his ailing daughter. Advocate Mudassir Abdul Majeed appeared before the court as the pleader of Hamza.

The court allowed the applications of both for one-time exemption from personal appearance and adjourned hearing of the Ramzan Sugar Mills reference till Sept 7. The court also adjourned hearing of the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme against Shehbaz and others till Sept 7.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2022