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.

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 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.

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.