Lahore - The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday extended pre-arrest bail of PML-N stalwart and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz restraining the National Accountability Bureau from arresting him. During yesterday’s hearing, the NAB filed its replies in Saaf Pani, Ramzan Sugar Mills and assets-beyond-means cases.
However the counsel, representing the PML-N leader, contended that he had not been provided proper copies of the reply. He added that copies provided to him were not readable. “If we had been provided proper copies, we would have filed our response to the replies today,” the counsel told the court yesterday. After hearing the arguments, a two-member LHC bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan called Hamza Shehbaz to the rostrum, and extended his bail till April 25. On April, the LHC granted Hamza pre-arrest bail till yesterday in the Saaf Pani Company and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases, besides issuing a notice to the NAB seeking its reply in the matter. The PML-N had to move the court for the pre-arrest bail in the two cases after a NAB team reached his family’s Model Town residence on April 6 and wrangled with his private security guards and supporters for nearly five hours for his arrest.
The standoff came to an end after the LHC restrained the accountability watchdog from apprehending him granting him protective bail until April 8 which was later extended to April 17 (yesterday). Hamza stated in his bail petitions that he was fearful of being arrested by the NAB in the two cases, saying that the bureau previously had called politicians in one case and apprehended them in another case.