By Our Correspondent
LAHORE: An accountability court Tuesday accepted application moved by Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif seeking exemption from personal appearance for one day on Tuesday in Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana housing cases.
The PML-N president moved the application through his counsel Amjad Pervaiz. The counsel contended before the court to grant his client exemption from court proceedings until May 8 as his client was abroad for medical treatment. On this, the judge remarked that how Shahbaz went out of the country without taking permission from the court. The counsel submitted medical reports of Shahbaz in the court saying that his client is a cancer patient and requested the court to just exempt his client from appearance till May 8.
Meanwhile, Hamza Shahbaz son of Shahbaz Sharif appeared in Ramzan Sugar Mills case. However, he implored the court for granting him early leave for attending the provincial assembly session which was granted. The court also recorded statements of two prosecution witnesses in Ramzan Sugar Mills case.
On the other hand, an accountability court extended 14-day physical remand of Mushtaq alias ‘Chini’ said to be a frontman of Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz and his brother Salman Shahbaz. The court has extended physical remand of the accused till May 7.
According to the NAB, the suspect Muhammad Mushtaq through illegal transactions had deposited Rs500 million in his own account and then transferred the money to the account of Salman Shahbaz. Earlier, in February, the NAB had filed reference in Ramzan Sugar Mills case against Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz. In the reference, Shahbaz and Hamza were nominated as prime suspects by the NAB. The NAB has blamed Hamza for his alleged role being the chief executive of the Ramzan Sugar Mills to get constructed a drain facilitating his mill out of the public money in Chiniot. The then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif allegedly approved an amount of Rs210 million for construction of the drain.