Assets, money-laundering case: Shahbaz, Hamza, other family members indicted

LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday indicted PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, his son, daughter and other family members in assets beyond means and money-laundering reference.

The court after indictment of the accused has summoned prosecution witnesses on November 26. Jail authorities produced Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz before the court amid tight security as heavy contingent of law-enforcers had cordoned off the court premises. Shahbaz’s daughter Javeria Ali along with seven other nominated accused appeared before the court.

As the hearing commenced, the judge Jawadul Hassan said he was going to frame charges against the accused. The judge while addressing the accused individually inquired that whether they accept the charges levelled against them by the NAB. Shahbaz and other accused refused to accept the charges and contended that they are innocent.

The court after hearing the accused framed the charges against them. The court has summoned prosecution witnesses including Punjab Assembly’s deputy secretary Faisal Bilal, Khalid Mehmood and Syed Tayyab Zawar on November 26 to start regular trial proceedings against the Shahbaz family.

Shahbaz in the court said still he has not been provided a physiotherapist. He said he is the opposition leader in the National Assembly and the NAB has made a fake case against him. He said the NAB has lost its credibility and is being used for ‘political engineering’. The NAB has failed to prove corruption of a single penny against him in all the cases being probed against him including Ashiana, Ramzan Sugar Mills and 56 companies case, he added. “I have saved Rs81 billion of the nation in different projects and the NAB is accusing me of Rs7 billion,” he said. On a lighter note, he said the NAB after deducting Rs7 billion from Rs81 billion can return me the remaining amount. It is pertinent to mention that in this reference the proceedings to declare Shahbaz’s wife Nusrat Shahbaz, son Suleman Shahbaz, daughter Rabia Imran, Tahir Naqvi and Ali Ahmad as proclaimed offenders are in the process.

In the reference against Shahbaz family, the NAB had claimed that in the last 30 years, the Shahbaz family assets ballooned from Rs 2 million to Rs7,000 million that the family failed to justify.

The NAB alleged the accused Shahbaz Sharif in connivance with his co-accused family members, ‘Benamidars’, front men, close associates, employees and moneychangers developed an organised system of money-laundering for accumulation of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of Rs 7,328 million.

The NAB nominated former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, his wife Nusrat Shahbaz, sons Hamza Shahbaz, Suleman Shahbaz, daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali in the reference. Suleman Shahbaz is a proclaimed offender in this case.

The other nominated accused include Nisar Ahmad, Syed Muhammad Tahir Naqvi, Ali Muhammad Khan, Qasim Qayyum, Rashid Karamat, Masroor Anwar, Muhammad Usman, Fazal Dad Abbasi, Muhammad Shoaib Qamar and Haroon Yousafzai.

The NAB also accepted requests from four persons for becoming approvers against Shahbaz family in the reference including Muhammad Mushtaq alias Mushtaq Cheeni, his son Yasir Mushtaq, Shahid Rafique and Aftab Ahmad. It has been learnt that the reference consists of 25,000 pages and 55 volumes.

In June 2019, Muhammad Mushtaq alias Cheeni and his son Yasir Mushtaq, front men for the Shahbaz family, while recording their statements before the court, confessed that they facilitated Suleman Shahbaz in whitening his Rs600 million black money through fake loan agreements and engineered telegraphic transfers (TTs).

Meanwhile, PML-N Punjab spokesperson Azma Bukhari has said the government has taken no action against Jehangir Tareen, who stole Rs100 billion from the pockets of the masses. She said this while reacting to the indictment of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz.

Terming Shahbaz the architect of Punjab, she said he saved billions of dollars in development projects and his actions caused financial loss to his family business. “This is a political case made by this government,” she added.

Talking about the stone pelting case outside the NAB office, she said the government has footage of Safe City Authority. It has already been reported that no worker of the PML-N threw stones outside the NAB office.

She was talking to media outside the Judicial Complex along with Attaullah Tarar. PML-N Central Deputy Secretary General Attaullah Tarar said the police were trying to make arrests to disrupt the upcoming ‘Jalsa’ of the PDM in Lahore.

“We are not afraid of these tactics and the Lahore Jalsa will show the government its true face,” he said, adding after the inquiry report on the Karachi incident, the question arises as to whether it was right to pick up the IG.

The government used the NAB and other agencies to harass the political opponents, he said and maintained that let the nation know who was bothered by the slogan of “Madar-e-Millat Zindabad” at Mazar-e-Quaid.

“We have rejected this inquiry report because it is not right for the institutions to provide their support to this incompetent government,” he added. “The case of Karachi incident has been dismissed. Shouldn’t a case be registered against those who lodged false and erroneous FIR?” he questioned.

Federal ministers and treasury members in the National and provincial assemblies kept threatening to register cases, Azma Bukhari said, adding the actions taken against the PML-N by the government were reversed against them.

“We have not yet decided to get pre-arrest bail of Maryam Nawaz,” she said, adding Musharraf was a better ruler than this government.

Tarar said that a new NRO has been issued in this country. He said Imran Khan’s ‘ATM’ was brought back for his personal financing. He said the NAB became blind, dumb and deaf when it comes to Jehangir Tareen, Razzak Dawood and Nadeem Babar.

“Imran Khan was right when he said that inflation in the country occurs when thieves are in government,” she said, adding in the past, the government was not a thief; therefore there was no inflation in the country.

She said the PML-N appealed the chief justice to take a suo motu notice against Jehangir Tareen and bring the prices of sugar down. She said what more the government can do against the opposition, will they hang us?

“The police are only targeting the opposition. We demand that Jehangir Tareen be arrested and asked how the sugar crisis came about, why he was given Rs560 million subsidy,” Tarar said, adding the government should panic now as their accountability will start soon.