Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday has conducted hearing on a petition seeking Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz’s bail in money laundering case.
According to details, a two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Muzahir Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem heard the case.
During the proceedings, Hamza Shahbaz’s lawyer Salman Aslam Butt said that his client is being subjected to political revenge. Non-political powers are using inquiry agencies including National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for their own interest, he claimed.
The lawyer told that Hamza’s arrest warrants were issued on April 12, 2019 and that his employees were declared benami in the case by the anti-graft watchdog.
PML-N leader was kept in custody for 189 days however, no reference was filed against him. The investigators had neglected section 18 of NAB Ordinance at the time of launching probe into money laundering case, he added.
The counsel went on to say that anti-money laundering act was also violated in case against Hamza Shahbaz. NAB was not having jurisdiction to hear this matter, he asserted.
Earlier, LHC had granted bail to Hamza Shahbaz in Ramzan Sugar Mills case.
On June 11, the NAB had arrested him in the same cases after LHC had turned down his applications for extension in interim bail.
In the hearing on June 11, Salman Butt, the defense counsel for Hamza, had argued that according to the NAB ordinance, the bureau could not issue arrest warrants unless an inquiry over the matter was completed. To which, Justice Naqvi had remarked that the judgment would be done as per the constitution, and justice would be ensured.
Moreover, the prosecutor had submitted complete details of assets of PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif’s family members in the court with an argument that their assets were beyond their known sources of income.
“Billions of rupees were added to the assets of Shehbaz’s family, whereas Hamza couldn’t provide details of the sources of his income,” he added.