Accountability Court grants bail to PM Shehbaz’s son Suleman Shehbaz Sharif in money laundering case

LAHORE, Dec 23, (SABAH): An accountability court in Lahore on Friday granted until January 7 interim pre-arrest bail to Suleman Shehbaz Sharif, son of the Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, in two cases of money laundering and accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

Suleman Shehbaz, who returned to Pakistan earlier this month after four years in London in self-imposed exile, is a suspect in an Rs16 billion money laundering case registered with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) while the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has accused him of being in possession of assets beyond his declared sources of income. He was declared a proclaimed offender in both investigations. Prior to his return, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) restrained the two agencies from arresting him, paving way for his safe return.

On Friday, accountability judge Raja Qamauz Zaman approved the request of Suleman Shehbaz against surety bonds worth Rs500,000. He also barred NAB from arresting him in the case. In his petition, filed the petition through Muhammad Amjad Parvez Advocate, Suleman Shehbaz argued he was booked in the case without any evidence. He also insisted he was declared proclaimed offender without any prior information, claiming he did not receive any notice from the court.

He also said legal formalities required to declare a suspect a proclaimed offender was not fulfilled in his case. Therefore, he said he be granted interim bail in the case. Since 2018, Suleman Shahbaz had been residing in the British capital with his family apparently to escape multiple corruption and financial embezzlement investigations launched against him by the dirty money watchdog ahead of that year’s general elections.