PM Shehbaz's son Suleman secures 14-day protective bail from IHC

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday granted 14 days of protective bail to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's son Suleman Shehbaz in Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) money laundering case and the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) assets beyond means reference filed against him.

Suleman landed in Pakistan on Sunday after spending over four years of self-exile in the United Kingdom, following IHC's directive to surrender before the court by December 13.

The court had denied protective bail to the premier's son, citing his absence, but barred the authorities from arresting him from the airport on his arrival to Pakistan.

Suleman appears before IHC

Suleman appeared before the IHC at the outset of the hearing of his plea for protective bail.

During the hearing, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq asked Suleman’s counsel about the court his client has to appear in.

At this, Amjad Pervez, Suleman’s lawyer, told the IHC CJ that his client has to appear before the central special judge in Lahore.

Justice Farooq, after learning this, granted protective bail to the PM’s son and directed him to appear before the relevant court hearing cases against him, within 14 days.

The court also restricted NAB from arresting Suleman.

In his petition before the IHC, Suleman contended that he left Pakistan in 2018 and the case was registered against him in 2020. He also shared that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had not issued a call-up notice to him, adding that he was declared a proclaimed offender by the court without any action.

‘Imran Khan’s time to be accountable here’

Speaking to the media outside IHC, Suleman slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and said that his time of accountability is here.

“The time of accountability is here, we will not spare him. We will not give him any space now and he will be punished,” said Suleman.

Asked about Farah Gogi, a friend of Imran Khan’s wife who allegedly sold the Toshakhana watches gifted to Khan, Suleman wondered why she fled Pakistan.

“You are crying that Farah Gogi is not a public office holder. I was not a public office holder either,” said Suleman. He added that the PTI chairman, while he was in power, did not even think about women and arrested them.

“You had the power, you could have proved the cases,” said Suleman.

The PM’s son also slammed former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Javed Iqbal, saying that he was a “black stain” on the accountability system.

'Entire world saw Imran Khan's tamasha last month'

Suleman further stated that the entire world saw the "tamasha" [show] by PTI Chairman Khan last month.

He said that the PTI leadership criticises every institution which provides relief to the PML-N leaders. He said that a case was registered in Britain at the behest of the Pakistani government in Khan's tenure, and its trial continued for 18 months.

"The [UK] National Crime Agency (NCA) found no evidence of money laundering against Shehbaz Sharif," Suleman said, while asking what the PTI leadership would say about the British agency now.

The PM’s son also asked the PTI chief to show the transaction of the money he got from selling the watches gifted by the Saudi crown prince.

Moving on to the defamation case that PM Shehbaz Sharif won in a UK court, Suleman said that PTI leader Shahzad Akbar was the one to bring David Rose — who wrote the defamatory article in the British publication Daily Mail — to NAB’s cell.

He said that the story was published in England's newspaper after a "false briefing" at NAB's cell.

"Shahzad Akbar himself is on the run from Pakistan. He played with Pakistan," Suleman said.

Suleman's exile

Suleman flew to London from Pakistan ahead of the 2018 general elections when the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) registered several cases against him.

He was also named in several cases along with his father, the current prime minister, his brother Hamza Shahbaz, and other Sharif family members.

The Assets Recovery Unit (ARU), headed by then-prime minister Imran Khan’s former accountability aide Shahzad Akbar, had Suleman investigated in London in Shahbaz's money-laundering and misuse of public office cases by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

However, he was given a clean chit after two years of investigation by the UK’s top anti-corruption sleuths.

Suleman has claimed that he was forced to leave Pakistan after fake and manipulated cases were registered against him and his family in order to facilitate a new political order.

He said that nobody goes into exile, leaving their homeland behind, out of their free will and it's only under unfair circumstances that he was left with no choice but to "leave Pakistan for safety."

“There was no chance of any justice at that time when a whole system was put in place to bring in the hybrid system, displacing us as a family and as a political party. The whole system was based on injustice and this system relied on lies, manipulations and victimisation. The whole system was geared to target us using fake cases and using the state machinery.”

He said in a statement from Madinah: “These cases were the worst example of political witch-hunt and political victimisation. There was no truth and not a scintilla of evidence of corruption in the cases cooked up by the National Accountability Bureau under former NAB chairman Javed Iqbal and the Assets Recovery Unit."