LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday issued notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on two separate applications of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son former chief minister Hamza Shehbaz seeking acquittal in a reference of money laundering and illegal assets.

Advocate Amjad Pervez advanced his initial arguments on behalf of the applicants saying the NAB had filed a politically motivated and baseless reference against his clients.

He said all assets of the applicants were legal and already declared in the documents regularly filed with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He said the NAB failed to produce any evidence against the applicants. He asked the court to allow the applications and acquit the applicants.

Judge Qamaruz Zaman issued notices to the NAB and directed a prosecutor to submit replies to the acquittal applications by July 19.

In May, the NAB told the court that it found no evidence of corruption or money laundering against Prime Minister Shehbaz and his family members.

A supplementary reference submitted by the bureau said a fresh investigation into the allegations was conducted in light of the new amendments introduced in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999. It said the investigation concluded that no offence under the NAB law was made out.

Other accused also include PM Shehbaz’s wife Nusrat, younger son Suleman Shehbaz, daughters Javeria Ali and Rabia Imran and son-in-law Haroon Yousaf.

In the reference, the NAB alleged that the family members and benamidars of PM Shehbaz 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 with personal bank accounts of his sons Hamza and Suleman.

PM Shehbaz, his elder son Hamza, daughter Javeria Ali have been indicted in the reference besides other accused persons including Fazal Dad Abbasi, Rashid Karamat, Muhammad Usman, Masroor Anwar, Nisar Ahmad, Shoaib Qamar and Qasim Qayum.

Shehbaz’s wife Nusrat has been indicted through a pleader as she is still out of the country.

The NAB had arrested PM Shehbaz on Sept 28, 2020 after the Lahore High Court (LHC) refused to further extend his pre-arrest bail. He remained in the NAB’s custody for 23 days till the trial court sent him on judicial remand on Oct 20, 2020.

A LHC full bench had released Shehbaz on bail in April 2021 and observed that the former chief minister of Punjab faced no allegation of receiving kickbacks or ill-gotten money.

A special court in October 2022 had also acquitted PM Shehbaz and Hamza in the Rs16bn money laundering case filed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2023