LAHORE - The Lahore High Court on Thursday accepted the post-arrest bail petitions filed by Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme cases.
A LHC division bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan, heard the bail petitions of Shehbaz Sharif and granted bail to him in both the cases.
At the outset of the hearing, Shehbaz’s counsel Amjad Parvaiz argued that his client had not caused any loss to the national exchequer as the sludge carrier near Ramzan Sugar Mills was built for use of public.
Besides the said sludge carrier, he argued, many similar development projects had also been built in other areas of Chiniot district. He submitted that the sludge carrier was constructed under Midterm Development Framework, which was approved by the Punjab Assembly and then provincial cabinet.
He submitted that the sugar mills operated seasonally and it was not the sole beneficiary of the sludge carrier.
He further argued that opposition leader was not the main accused in Ashiana scam. He maintained that Shehbaz was nominated in supplementary reference, saying that the latter did not exercise any illegal authority and all allegations levelled against him were baseless. He submitted that the court could accept the bail petitions filed by his client.
However, National Accountability Bureau’s special prosecutor Akram Qureshi opposed submissions to grant bail to the accused. The NAB official argued that Shehbaz exercised his authority illegally in Ashiana scam and caused financial loss to the national exchequer.
He further said that sludge carrier was constructed to benefit Ramzan Sugar Mills as the accused, being then Punjab chief minister, exercised his authority illegally for the purpose. He maintained that sludge carrier was constructed in Chiniot district only to facilitate Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by members of his family.
He alleged that the act of power abuse on the part of the PML-N leader caused a loss of Rs213 million to the national exchequer. He argued that development projects were not reviewed deeply in the assembly and only the budget was discussed.
The court questioned why the NAB had arrested Shehbaz Sharif instead of his son Hamza Shehbaz who was the actual beneficiary and chairman of Ramzan Sugar Mills. The NAB official replied that Hamza was extending full cooperation in the investigation and his arrest was not necessary.
The court after hearing the arguments earlier reserved its verdict for sometime but later granted bail to Shehbaz Sharif in both the cases, subject to furnishing of surety bonds.
Earlier, the court had questioned about the funds released for the sludge carrier, and defence replied that the Punjab government was empowered to release funds for the sludge carrier as its cost was about Rs 200 million.
The bench asked the counsels for the parties to satisfy it over various questions and sought replies that how the sludge carrier was built for personal or public use.
Shehbaz had been arrested by NAB Lahore in connection with the Ashiana Housing case on October 5, 2018. He was accused of misusing authority by unlawfully assuming powers of the board of directors of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC). He was also accused of awarding a contract to an ineligible proxy firm that resulted in failure of the housing scheme which caused huge loss to the public exchequer, besides depriving 61,000 applicants of residences.
He was also accused of issuing directive to entrust the project of a housing scheme to the Lahore Development Authority from the PLDC in violation of the Companies Ordinance, Memorandum and Article of Association and Corporate Governance Rules 2013.
