Accountability court indicts PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif in money laundering case

LAHORE: PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif and others have been indicted in a money laundering case by an accountability court in Lahore on Wednesday.

The court has asked National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to present their evidence on the next hearing. The suspects, however, pleaded not guilty.

Speaking to media outside the courtroom, Shahbaz dismissed the NAB cases as “baseless” and termed them politically-motivated.

What is the money laundering case?

The former chief minister is accused of accumulating assets worth Rs7,328 million in connivance with his co-accused family members, benamidars, front persons and close associations and for developing an organized system of money laundering.

The anti-graft watchdog has nominated a total of 20 individuals in the reference – Shahbaz’s wife Nusrat, his sons Hamza and Suleman, and daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali.

NAB accuses the PML-N president of committing corruption as envisaged under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 and money laundering as outlined in the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010. It says that the accused “created fake sources of income” to “justify the assets” acquired beyond known sources of income.

On September 29, Shahbaz was arrested by NAB after the Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected his bail in the money laundering case.

The PML-N president was previously arrested on October 5, 2018 in another case pertaining to Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana Housing Scheme. He was in the anti-graft watchdog’s custody when the inquiry into money laundering was authourised.