No evidence of corruption found against Pak PM Sharif, says Lahore court

The Lahore Special Court has said that no evidence of corruption, misuse of authority and bribery was found on record against prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz in the money laundering cases, Geo News reported.

Stating that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had ‘mala fide’ intentions for arresting Hamza and the prime minister, the court said that the agency started investigating the duo when they were already in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau. Both Hamza and Shehbaz Sharif were interrogated on December 18, 2020 and January 8, 2021.

But the FIA did not interrogate them for the next five months, and asked them to appear before the agency once they were released from the NAB custody, the court said. “This shows that the prosecution wanted to arrest them again after their release, which shows its mal intent,” the special court’s order said.

The court had extended the pre-arrest bail of Hamza Shahbaz and the prime minister till June 11 in the alleged sugar mills scam amounting to 16 billion Pakistani rupees. The court had said that the agency wanted to arrest the father-son duo after it secured bails in the NAB cases.

“…allegation about gratification, corrupt practice, abuse of official authority, kickbacks, and commission requires further probe during the trial as at this stage cogent evidence is not available,” the order read.

The order said that the investigation office (IO), to date, has not mentioned in his diary that the petitioners were required to be in custody for further investigation.

Decoding the money laundering case

Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz are principal accused in the sugar mills case worth 16 billion Pakistani rupees. In 2020, Sharif and his sons Hamza and Suleman were booked by the FIA under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Suleman is absconding in the United Kingdom and the court has issued an arrest warrant against him.

The FIA investigation has said that it has detected 28 benami accounts, allegedly of the Shehbaz family, through which an amount of 14 billion Pakistani Rupees was laundered from 2008 to 2018.

The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions.

The amount was kept in “hidden accounts” and given to Shehbaz in his personal capacity, according to the charges.