Hamza assets didn’t match his sources of income: LHC

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench ruled in its detailed judgement on Monday that assets of Hamza Shahbaz did not match his known sources of income.

The verdict, written by Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, rejected the bail application of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader and the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly in money-laundering case, and ruled that the accused failed to provide proofs of his income and accounts.

The judgement said Hamza did not deserve bail as he had no proofs of where from the money was coming into his bank accounts. The judgment said that in 2003, Hamza’s assets were Rs515.007 million, but they rose to over Rs4.173 billion in the coming years. The assets went up extraordinarily but there was no money trail and proof of that income which kept coming into his accounts from domestic and foreign accounts.

The judgment said Hamza received Rs181.600 million from foreign sources and also received Rs10.810 million as gift into his accounts, but no proof was given for those transactions.

The judgement said Shahid Rafiq and Aftab Mehmood were two witnesses who became approver against him, disclosing that transactions were made from four foreign banks into his accounts. It also said that Hamza was gifted 153-kanal lands by his brother Suleman Shahbaz, which was obtained from fake foreign exchange. Besides, Hamza also possessed an 8-kanal house in Judicial Colony, which had some fake ownership.