Money-laundering case: LHC extends Shahbaz bail till 24th

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday extended pre-arrest bail of opposition leader in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif in the money-laundering case, while arguments of his counsel were in progress. Earlier, resuming his arguments, Advocate Amjad Pervez argued that his client had a fundamental right to have access

to the document on the basis of which an investigation was being carried out against him. He said this while referring to a report of the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), relied upon by the NAB to initiate the money-laundering inquiry against Shahbaz and his family.

The NAB had previously told the court that the said report was a secret document and had not been made part of the reference, filed before the accountability court against the petitioner.

During his Tuesday’s arguments, Advocate Pervez questioned the authenticity of the FMU report saying how a person could be tried on the basis of a document which was not even part of the trial against him.

He said the FMU report was a regular affair and it was issued on a monthly basis. He pointed out that no bank reported any suspected transaction and NAB also had not nominated any bank official as suspect in the reference.

He said there was a difference between the money laundering and a suspected transaction.

NAB Special Prosecutor Syed Faisal Raza Bokhari interrupted here and said the high court had already rejected the argument of the petitioner’s counsel in bail matter of leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Hamza Shahbaz.

Advocate Pervez argued that the powers of the chairman of the NAB were not absolute and he was duty bound to make his opinion in any matter strictly in the light of judgments passed by the Supreme Court.

He said simply an increase in someone’s assets could not be related to fraud or corruption. He said initiating inquiries on anonymous complaints was a clear violation of the laws.

The counsel pointed out that Mirza Shahzad Akbar, special assistant to the prime minister, and other federal ministers had waved the copies of the reference at a press conference two months before the NAB filed it before the trial court.

The bench allowed the counsel to read the transcript of the ministers’ press conference despite an objection raised by the prosecutor.

Shahbaz also spoke in his defence with the court’s permission.

The bench extended the bail of Shahbaz till Sept 24 and directed his counsel to conclude the arguments on the next hearing.

A heavy contingent of police was deployed out and inside the LHC premises to deal with any law order situation in case of the arrest of Shahbaz following rejection of the bail petition.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh personally inspected the security arrangements and issued guidelines to the police personnel.

Many Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders including Rana Sanaullah Khan and Marriyum Aurangzeb and workers attended the bail proceedings.