The anti-graft agency National Accountability Bureau (NAB) acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shehbaz, and other defendants in the Rs7 billion money laundering and assets beyond means case.
On Wednesday, Judge Qamar-ul-Zaman of an accountability court in Lahore heard the case after the NAB had provided an additional report for the money laundering reference.
When PM Shehbaz’s legal representative, Anwar Hussain, showed up in court, NAB pronounced the defendants innocent.
The accountability court delayed the case hearing until May 24.
NAB previously charged PM Shehbaz and his family with money laundering and possessing properties that were beyond their means in investigations involving Rs 7 billion.
The agency claimed that the Shehbaz family’s assets had increased from Rs 2 million to Rs 7 billion over the previous 30 years, a claim that the family was unable to defend.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) charged PM Shehbaz and his co-accused family members, including his wife Nusrat Shehbaz, sons Hamza and Suleman Shehbaz, daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali, along with their benamidars, front men, close friends, employees, and moneychangers, with developing a sophisticated money laundering scheme to amass assets that were out of proportion to their known sources of income.
The case’s claimed financial stakes totaled Rs7.3 billion.
NAB thus recommended them in the references.
This instance has already charged Suleman Shehbaz with a crime.
Nisar Ahmad, Syed Muhammad Tahir Naqvi, Ali Muhammad Khan, Qasim Qayyum, Rashid Karamat, Masroor Anwar, Muhammad Usman, Fazal Dad Abbasi, Muhammad Shoaib Qamar, and Haroon Yousaf Aziz were among the additional suspects nominated.
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