LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has declared Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shehbaz and others “innocent” in a Rs7 billion reference related to assets beyond means and money laundering filed against them by the anti-graft body.
During the hearing by Judge Qamar-ul-Zaman at an accountability court in Lahore on Wednesday, the anti-graft body submitted the supplementary report on the alleged money-laundering reference.
PM Shehbaz’s legal representative Anwar Hussain appeared in the court, where NAB acquitted the PM, his son, and others indicted in the case.
At the end of the hearing, the accountability court postponed the hearing of the case till 24 May.
Earlier, the bureau had declared PM Shehbaz and his family guilty of Rs7 billion references of money laundering and assets beyond means.
In references filed against the Shehbaz family, NAB claimed that in the last 30 years, their assets increased from Rs2 million to Rs7 billion, which the family had failed to justify.
NAB had alleged that accused PM Shehbaz, in connivance with his co-accused family members, benamidars, front men, close associates, workers, and moneychangers, had developed the organised system of money laundering for the accumulation of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs7.3 billion.
Consequently, the accountability watchdog nominated the PM, his wife Nusrat Shehbaz, sons Suleman Shehbaz and Hamza, and daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali in the references.
Suleman is already a proclaimed offender in this case. The other nominated accused are Syed Muhammad Tahir Naqvi, Nisar Ahmad, Ali Muhammad Khan, Rashid Karamat, Qasim Qayyum, Masroor Anwar, Muhammad Usman, Fazal Dad Abbasi, Haroon Yousaf Aziz and Muhammad Shoaib Qamar.
