LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday issued summons to former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son ex-chief minister Hamza Shehbaz as it reopened the reference of Ramzan Sugar Mills against them.

The NAB had approached the court to reopen the reference that was closed under the defunct amendments in the law. The Supreme Court had struck down the amendments introduced by the coalition government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

Presiding Judge Ali Zulqarnain issued summons to Shehbaz and Hamza to join the fresh proceedings in person or through counsel on Nov 29.

An accountability court had on Sept 7, 2022 returned the Ramzan Sugar Mills reference to the NAB with an observation that it lacked jurisdiction to proceed in the case after defunct amendments introduced in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The scrapped amendments had clipped the jurisdiction of the bureau to take cognisance of any alleged financial corruption involving money less than Rs500 million. The NAB in the sugar mills reference against Shehbaz and his son made a case of alleged corruption of Rs213m.

In the mills reference, the NAB had arrested Shehbaz on Oct 5, 2018 and the Lahore High Court had released him on bail on Feb 14, 2019.

The LHC in its bail granting order observed that prima facie, allegations about gratification, corrupt practice, abuse of authority, kickbacks and commission required further probe during trial as at this stage cogent evidence was not available.

The NAB alleged that Shehbaz being the chief minister and his son Hamza with the abetment and connivance of each other caused a loss of Rs213m to the exchequer by committing the offence of misuse of authority.

It said Shehbaz had issued a directive for the construction of a drain in Chiniot primarily for the use of Ramzan Sugar Mills owned by his sons - Hamza and Suleman.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2023