Shehbaz Sharif’s son to appear before special court in money laundering case on April 11

PTI

Lahore, April 10

Hamza Shehbaz, son of PML-N president and joint opposition’s Prime Ministerial candidate Shehbaz Sharif, is scheduled to appear before a special court in a high-profile money laundering case on Monday.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special court on April 4 summoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz, his son Hamza and others for indictment in money-laundering and sugar scam on April 11.

Shehbaz’s counsel advocate Amjad Pervez told PTI on Sunday that his client would file an exemption from personal appearance in the FIA special court on Monday in the money laundering proceedings.

“Mr Sharif is in Islamabad to contest the prime minister election on Monday. Therefore, the court will be requested to defer the indictment,” he said.

When asked whether Hamza, a chief ministerial nominee for Punjab chief minister, would be indicted, the lawyer said: “The indictment is made on all suspects.” Meanwhile, PTI leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet said that the FIA prosecution head Lahore has been directed not to appear before the court in Shehbaz’s case so that the indictment is delayed.

When asked a senior FIA Lahore official about Chaudhry’s allegation, he told PTI that no such direction had been made to the agency’s prosecution head. “We will follow the case on merit,” the official said.

Shehbaz and his sons – Hamza and Suleman – were booked by FIA in November 2020 under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Money Laundering Act. Suleman is absconding and residing in the UK.

The FIA investigation has detected 28 benami accounts, allegedly of the Shehbaz family, through which an amount to the tune of PKR 14 billion was laundered from 2008 to 2018. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions and the amount was kept in “hidden accounts” and given to Shehbaz in his personal capacity.