LAHORE: A special court granted prime minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif an exemption from appearing in court in a money laundering case on Tuesday.
PM Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza are accused of laundering Rs16 billion through bogus companies.
At the start of today’s hearing, PM Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel requested an exemption from court appearance, citing the premier’s involvement in important national matters.
The counsel pleaded with the court to grant PM Shehbaz Sharif a one-day exemption from court appearances, which the court granted.
At the most recent session, PM Shehbaz stated before the court that throughout his 20 years as Punjab’s chief minister, he made policies that “damaged” his family’s sugar industry.
“I was asked to provide sugar mills subsidies, but I declined. I declined because the money (that would have been used for the subsidy) belonged to Punjab’s poor, according to PM Shehbaz Sharif.
The prime minister said that the money laundering allegation against him was “fake” and insisted that he never gave sugar mills a subsidy.
