Special Court (Central-I) Judge Ijaz Hassan Awan extends interim bail of PM Shehbaz, Hamza till June 11 in money laundering case
LAHORE, June 04 (SABAH): A special court in Lahore extended on Saturday the interim bail of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, his son Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and 16 other accused until June 11 in the hearing of Rs16 billion money laundering case against them. The counsel of Hamza Shehbaz, Muhammad Amjad Pervaiz Advocate has completed his arguments regarding confirmation of the bail of his client. Meanwhile the court has directed the counsels of other accused to present their arguments on next hearing of the case. The hearing was subsequently adjourned until June 11.
However, the presiding judge of the Special Court (Central-I), Ijaz Hassan Awan, issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Suleman Shahbaz Sharif, Tahir Naqvi and Malik Masood in the case, as they were not present. The court has summoned the compliance report from FIA regarding the non-bailable arrest warrants of Suleman Shahbaz Sharif, Tahir Naqvi and Malik Masood on the next hearing of the case.
Both PM Shehbaz Sharif and CM Punjab Hamza Shehbaz, whose interim was extended till June 4 at the previous hearing, appeared before the court on Saturday.
At the outset of the hearing on Saturday, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Farooq Bajwa told the court that the agency wanted to arrest PM Shehbaz and CM Hamza as FIA’s lawyer argued that the duo was “not part of the investigation”; however, Hamza’s counsel rejected the claims, accusing the agency of misleading the court as the “two had been a part of the investigations”.
In his arguments, the counsel for Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz, Muhammad Amjad Pervaiz said that the investigation has been going on for the last one-and-a-half year and the FIA has been unable to produce any evidence against his clients.
At the outset of the hearing, the FIA’s counsel told the judge that half of the prosecution’s team had been barred from reaching the courtroom by security, at which the relevant SP gave assurances that the FIA members stopped by the security would be allowed into the courtroom.
PM Shehbaz and Hamza’s counsel, Mohammad Amjad Pervaiz, then began his arguments for the confirmation of Hamza’s bail, saying that the case had been investigated for one-and-a-half year and yet no evidence was on record.
Referring to the PTI’s tenure but without naming the party, he said: “There had been worst political engineering in the previous tenure. The Lahore High Court has also declared political engineering a reality.”
The counsel said it had been said a certain Mushtaq Cheeni had been included in the investigation, but he was neither made a witness nor a suspect.
He claimed that the FIA included Shehbaz and Hamza in the investigation while they were in jail and went on to allege that “state machinery was used to suppress opposition leaders in the previous tenure”.
In response, the counsel for the FIA contended that the “suspects had not been included in the investigation”. He did not elaborate whether he was referring to only Shehbaz or Hamza here.
Shehbaz and Hamza’s lawyer argued back that the “suspects had been included in the investigation”, and that “the FIA’s lawyer is making a false statement”.
Continuing his arguments, he said: “There was just one agenda to the previous government: to somehow put them (Shehbaz and Hamza) in jail.”
He denied that Hamza had ever been a director or shareholder of the sugar mills named in the case. Following that, Hamza and Shehbaz left after taking the court’s permission.
The judge then observed that the prosecution had maintained that money was withdrawn from a certain Gulzar’s account even after his death.
“Then there should be evidence that this money was deposited in Hamza Shehbaz’s account,” the Punjab CM’s counsel Amjad Pervaiz contended.
The court then suspended the hearing, directing Pervaiz to present arguments on legal points after the break.
Before the suspension, the FIA’s prosecutor said would present his arguments after the completion of Pervaiz’s arguments.
When the hearing resumed, Pervaiz maintained that the suspects in the case had “never taken undue advantage of bail” they had been granted.
He argued that the FIA’s investigation had been completed and an arrest could not be made at this stage.
“Shehbaz and Hamza had joined the FIA’s probe,” he reiterated, adding that the court had established that there had been a delay by the FIA in the filing of this case.
He said it was “an important legal point that the prosecutor prove the aspect of mala fide in this case”.
“A challan has been submitted in the case and things are documented,” the lawyer continued. He further pointed out that the suspects were on bail for the past year.
“There are no complaints about the suspects’ attendance at the hearings. Courts confirm bail only on these grounds,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court had stated that it was not even necessary to prove mala fide in the case.
After the completion of his arguments, the court reissued the arrest warrants for suspects Salman Shehbaz, Tahir Naqvi and Malik Maqsood.
The court adjourned the hearing after extending Shehbaz and Hamza’s interim bail till June 11.
The lawyers of other suspects are to present their arguments at the next hearing.
It is pertinent to mention here that father’s names of Salman Shehbaz, Tahir Naqvi were not mentioned while address of Maqsood Malik was incorrect in the previous challan submitted by the FIA in the court.
Charges against Hamza, Shehbaz The FIA had in December 2021 submitted the challan against Shehbaz and Hamza to a special court for their alleged involvement in laundering an amount of Rs16bn in the sugar scam case.
“The investigation team has detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions,” according to an FIA report submitted to the court.
The amount was kept in “hidden accounts” and given to Shehbaz in a personal capacity, the report added.
This amount (Rs16bn) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of the Shehbaz family), it claimed. The money received from the accounts of low-wage employees by Shehbaz was transferred outside Pakistan via hundi/hawala networks, ultimately destined for the beneficial use of his family members, the FIA had alleged.
“Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who ‘held and possessed’ the laundered proceeds on behalf of the principal accused, are found guilty of facilitating money laundering. The three other co-accused of the Sharif group also actively facilitated the money laundering,” the agency had said.
On the other hand, during the hearing in Ramzan Sugar Mills, Money Laundering and Ashiyana Housing cases, filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in an accountability court, PM Shehbaz Sharif requested the judge to present arguments himself and sought time for it.
During the hearing, prosecutor Asadullah Malik produced witnesses who presented records related to the corruption cases while SSP Legal Lahore Police sought more time from the court to present complete records. After hearing all the arguments, the hearing was adjourned till June 20. The court has summoned the witnesses of NAB to record their statements on the next hearing of the case.
The court has adjourned the money laundering case till 15th June against Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and other accused.
It is worth mentioning that Shehbaz has already been indicted in the Ashiyana Housing reference