Money laundering case: Court seeks additional details on PM Shehbaz, son’s acquittal pleas

By Muhammad JuniadPublished On 05 Jan 2023

The special central court in Lahore has sought additional details from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz on their pleas for acquittal in the money laundering case.

During Friday’s proceedings in the case, the court asked the counsel of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz why his clients were not present in the court room. The lawyer told the court that Shehbaz was enroute to the court even though he had critical meetings of national importance to attend, including a meeting of the federal cabinet.

Soon after, Shehbaz appeared before the bench.

Hamza, however, filed an application seeking a one-day exemption from appearing before the court on account of poor health. “He is not even appearing in the media,” his lawyer argued.

His application was approved by the court.

During proceedings, Shehbaz told the court that the case lodged against him was false.

“I had performed as the chief minister of Punjab for 20 years and took decisions which in turn damaged my family business,” he stated in his defence.

Amjad Pervaiz, the counsel for PM Shehbaz and Hamza, explained that no charge had been made against his clients in the first information report (FIR).

He added that Sulaiman Shehbaz was also accused of concealing the sale of sugar, but not money laundering.

“This is not the jurisdiction of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) but of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR),” he argued.

Afterwards, the court asked the lawyer to submit additional details on the acquittal plea and adjourned hearings of the case until October 8.

Money laundering charges

In December last year, the FIA had submitted a challan against the two PML-N leaders before the court for their alleged involvement in laundering an amount of Rs16 billion in the sugar scam case.

The investigation team has “detected 28 Benami [untitled] accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008 to 2018”. It examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions.

Shehbaz and Hamza were booked in the case along with Suleman Shehbaz, who was absconding in the United Kingdom. 14 other people were also named in the FIR.

The report revealed that the amount was kept under “hidden accounts” which were given to Shehbaz in a personal capacity. “The amount has nothing to do with the sugar business [of the family]. It was received from the accounts of low-wage employees by Shehbaz and was transferred outside Pakistan.”