LAHORE - A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday issued notices and sought reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a post-arrest bail petition filed by Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif for January 29 in Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme cases.

Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf comprising the division bench heard the post-arrest bail petition.

During the hearing, Shehbaz Sharif’s counsels contended that the accountability watchdog authorities arrested their client in connection with Ashiana Iqbal Housing and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases. They added that the arrest was made in spite of the fact that he extended complete cooperation to NAB authorities in investigations.

Representing the PML-N president, Advocates Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervaiz pleaded that their client had been apprehended on charges of misuse of authority and causing a loss to exchequer in Ashiana Iqbal Housing scam. However, they said, no grounds of arrest had been provided in Ramzan Sugar Mills case.

They submitted that all accusations leveled against Shehbaz Sharif were baseless while the NAB officials did not have any solid evidence against him. They requested to the court that benefit of bail be granted to Shehbaz as investigations had been completed in both the cases and his custody was no more required by the NAB. They also informed the court about the deteriorating health of the PML-N leader as plea for his release on bail.

After hearing the arguments, the division bench issued notices to NAB authorities for January 29 and sought reply.

In connection with Ashiana Iqbal Housing scam, Shehbaz Sharif was arrested by the bureau on October 5, 2018. On December 22, the NAB had filed a supplementary reference against him and 12 others in the case. The supplementary reference is comprised of over a thousand pages and spread over three volumes.

Shehbaz Sharif is accused of misusing his authority which resulted in failure of the project and as a result 61,000 applicants were deprived of the housing units. Shehbaz is further charged with awarding the contract to a proxy with connivance of former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General (DG) Ahad Cheema.

Shehbaz, who is also the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, is also accused of misusing his authority being chief minister and ordered the construction of a bridge in Chiniot which facilitated Ramzan Sugar Mills that is owned by the Shehbaz family. The accountability watchdog alleged that a sum Rs200 million had been paid from the national kitty for the construction of the bridge.

In addition, a week ago, the Lahore High Court ordered the Interior Ministry to remove the name of Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz from the ECL for 10 days, and permitted the PML-N leader to travel abroad. He had filed a petition seeking order for the removal of his name from the no-fly list. He told the court that the Interior Ministry had placed his name on the list in an arbitrary manner as no notice was issued to him before the action.

On the other side, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryum Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking removal of their names from the Exit Control List. They have added to their petition a memorandum of causes of their names’ inclusion in the no-fly list pleading that there was on rationale to get their names on the ECL.