AC adjourns hearing of two references against Shahbaz, Hamza

LAHORE: Hearing of the money laundering reference against the family of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif was adjourned without any progress due to unavailability of the regular judge of an Accountability Court. The jail officials brought Shahbaz and his son and leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz to the judicial complex for the hearings of two references –- the money laundering and Punjab Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme.

Duty Judge Akmal Khan adjourned the money laundering reference till Feb 24. Later Shahbaz was produced before another Accountability Court for the housing scheme reference wherein statements of two prosecution witnesses were recorded. Judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry summoned more witnesses on Feb 25.

With the permission of the judge, Shahbaz, being President of PML-N, also signed tickets of his party’s candidates for the Senate election.

Other suspects in the reference, including former principal secretary to prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad and Lahore Development Authority’s former chairman Ahad Khan Cheema, also attended the proceedings.

Meanwhile, a Lahore High Court (LHC) two-judge bench on Wednesday adjourned hearing a petition of Hamza Shahbaz, seeking post-arrest bail in the reference of money laundering and assets beyond means. The hearing of the petition was fixed before the bench comprising Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural.

Hamza’s counsel Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervez were present in the court, however, due to paucity of time the hearing was adjourned till Feb 23.

On the previous hearing, the NAB was directed to submit its reply to the petition. The petition states that the allegations of money laundering and assets beyond means against the petitioner are false and frivolous as the petitioner has not been given the credit of income on account of a number of known sources of income duly declared by him from time to time.

Three co-suspects have already been allowed post-arrest bail in the reference. Previously, the LHC had dismissed the first petition of Hamza for post-arrest bail on Feb 11, 2020. He later approached the SC for the bail, however, was directed to move the LHC again as the grounds taken before the former were not discussed before the latter.