LAHORE   -  An accountability court on Wednesday extended physical remand of PML-N and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz in Ramzan Sugar Mills and assets beyond means cases.

Special Judge Accountability Court Naeem Arshad was informed by a NAB investigation officer that Hamza acquired assets beyond his known sources of income and suspicious transactions were also detected in his accounts. The NAB prosecutor contended that the anti-graft watchdog has obtained record of Hamza’s assets from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Hamza’s family owned assets worth Rs50 million in 2005, which grew manifold in 2006, he said. He added that the opposition leader failed to provide money trail of how these assets increased.

He said the FBR didn’t have record of the accused’s wealth acquired between 2006 and 2009. The NAB official added that during the period, Hamza set up five new companies and invested Rs190 million. However, he maintained, the money trail of the money had not been provided.

The NAB official argued that investigations were underway in connection with both the cases, and requested to the court to extend the physical remand of the accused so as to complete the investigations.

However, the defence counsel opposed the NAB request for extension of his physical remand and submitted that his client had declared all assets. He submitted that all record had been given to the bureau, therefore, physical remand was not required.

Opposing the NAB\s plea to extend his client’s remand, the defence counsel asked why the NAB has not been able to gather material against his client yet.

He pleaded that a person could not be arrested on the ground that he did not have wealth statement.

He argued neither Hamza nor his family were in power when the companies in question were established. He said that all of their assets were declared in tax returns of 2008. He said that the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had entire record of these companies established by the Sharif family.

He pleaded with the court to send the PML-N leader to jail on judicial remand.

However, the court after hearing the arguments extended the physical remand of Hamza Shehbaz for 14 days in assets beyond means case and 9 days in Ramzan Sugar Mills case.

Meanwhile, an application was submitted on behalf of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif seeking exemption of Shehbaz from appearing before the court in the cases.

On behalf of the PML-N president, his counsel filed the application, stating that he was in Islamabad because of the ongoing budget session of the National Assembly.

The court was told that Shehbaz Sharif, being the opposition leader in the National Assembly, has a constitutional role to play thus, he be exempted from personal appearance in the court.

On the occasion, strict security  arrangements were made while a large number of PML-N workers were also present to express solidarity with their leader.

The NAB authorities arrested Hamza after a LHC division bench, headed by Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, rejected  his pre-arrest bail petitions on account of being withdrawn.

In the last hearing the court had taken notice of the absence of Hamza Shehbaz and directed the NAB authorities to present him before the court at the next hearing scheduled for June 26 (yesterday).