Lahore: The Special Court (Central) on behalf of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has postponed the hearing of the money laundering case of 16 billion rupees against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz till October 8 on Friday.
Hamza did not appear in court during today’s hearing as he requested immunity on medical grounds. In the moments of the hearing, the prime minister also pleaded for immunity as he had “important” matters to attend to.
The prime minister also told the court that a “bogus case” had been registered against him and that he had taken several decisions in public interest, in the process damaging his family business.
Prime Minister Shehbaz’s lawyer Amjad Pervez, who presented his arguments today, will continue them at the next hearing as well.
The prime minister and his son, who is a top Muslim League-N leader, got bail in the case in July after submitting a surety bond of Rs 1 million.
Today’s hearing
Initially, the Prime Minister’s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz told the court that his client would appear in some time. After some time, the Prime Minister arrived at the hearing.
Opening his arguments, Parvez said that the First Information Report (FIR) filed against his clients stated that they were involved in money laundering of Rs 25 billion during 2008-2018 through fake companies.
“The allegations are general in nature. The FIR also states that Sharif group companies were used for money laundering. However, during these 10 years, Shahbaz was neither a director nor a shareholder of these companies. “
Pervez said that the FIR was registered after investigation and the opening paragraph of the report did not mention Shehbaz.
The lawyer told the court that it is up to the individual whether they decide to keep the movable or immovable property. On this, Judge Ejaz Awan said that he should announce it otherwise it will become black money.
If that was the case, the FIA would have taken action. This FIR was registered during the previous government’s tenure. The court has already said in reference to the cases filed during the previous regime that FIA was used for political engineering,” the lawyer pointed out.
Parvez told the court that the FIR did not mention that the low-paid employees claimed that they had opened bank accounts on Shahbaz’s instructions.
Parvez said that the prosecution claims that Shahbaz was involved in concealing Rs 4 billion which he managed to get by selling sugar, but we still have to examine the FIR whether it falls under the jurisdiction of the FIA. Is it or not?
“FBR [Federal Board of Revenue] Or the Income Tax department can take action in the matter,” he said.
“They (prosecutors) use the name of Sharif Group for political purposes. The name of Sharif Group is not registered under the Companies Ordinance,” he added.
Shehbaz Sharif’s application during the hearing
Prime Minister Shehbaz stopped his lawyer and said that he wanted to talk. The court gave permission.
“I have some important work in Islamabad. If you excuse me, I will go. But before that I want to say something.”
The prime minister told the court that he had taken decisions as the chief minister of Punjab for 20 years which damaged his family’s sugar business.
“I was requested to provide subsidy to sugar mills, but I refused. I refused because the money (to be used for subsidy) belonged to the poor people of Punjab,” he said.
Terming the money laundering case against him as “fake”, the Prime Minister said that he never provided subsidy to sugar mills.
Noting that he has several other matters to attend to, the Prime Minister said that he has been entrusted with an important responsibility in these trying times.
“Petrol prices are going up, the country is flooded, every dollar is precious to us, I have banned the export of sugar because people will not forgive me if the price of sugar goes up.”
He said that if Pakistan exports sugar, the country will get foreign exchange reserves and no one would like to stop it from exporting sugar.
Shahbaz went back after getting permission from the court.
Problem
In December 2021, the FIA filed a challan against Shehbaz and Hamza in a special court for their alleged involvement in the laundering of Rs 16 billion in a Chinese scam.
According to the FIA report submitted in the court, the investigation team found 28 benami accounts of Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs 16.3 billion was done during 2008-18. FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions.
The report added that the money was kept in “hidden accounts” and “personally given to Shahbaz”.
This amount (16 billion rupees) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of Shahbaz’s family). The FIA had said that money received from the accounts of low-wage employees was allegedly transferred out of Pakistan through the Handi/Hawala network, ultimately destined for the beneficial use of their family members. was
“Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif Group who ‘held and held’ the money laundered on behalf of the original accused were found guilty of facilitating money laundering. Three other co-accused of the Sharif Group were also found guilty of money laundering. “I actively facilitated,” the agency said.
