LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over non-submission of a reply by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to bail petitions of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif in the Ashiyana housing scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases.

When a two-judge LHC bench headed by Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmed asked the NAB prosecutor whether he had filed a reply to the petitions, the latter sought more time and requested the court to adjourn the hearing for a week. This irked the bench and Justice Shehzad took the prosecutor to task for his conduct.

The judge observed that NAB sought adjournment on each and every date of hearing, warning the prosecutor that no further adjournment would be given in the case.

Judge warns no further adjournment will be granted in the cases

“NAB has already filed a reference and now its comments are not needed,” the judge said while turning down the NAB prosecutor’s request. He said Mr Shahbaz’s bail pleas might be heard, if needed, on a daily basis. “Seven months have passed and we will not allow further delay,” observed Justice Shehzad. During the course of hearing, the court stopped the NAB prosecutor from speaking and asked Mr Shahbaz’s counsel to start his arguments.

Counsel Azam Nazir Tarar contended that PML-N president Shahbaz had been nominated in the Paragon Housing City scam case despite the fact that he had no direct or indirect role in the matter.

“There are no statements against Mr Shahbaz in the reference, yet he has been on physical remand for 50 days. Even terrorists are not sent on remand for this long. And on the other hand, NAB is not even submitting a reply,” the counsel said. The court also acknowledged the counsel on this point.

When Justice Shehzad asked the counsel about Mr Shahbaz’s alleged relationship with the Paragon City, he denied the existence of any such relationship. “My client has nothing to do with Paragon City and NAB has levelled several allegations against him,” the counsel stated.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2019