A Pakistani court on Tuesday granted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son and Prime Minister Hamza Shehbaz of Punjab a one-time exemption from the right to appear personally at hearings in separate corruption cases.
Prime Minister Shehbaz is due to appear before a liability court in Lahore on Tuesday in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme corruption case, in which he faces abuse of power and damages of millions of rupees to case.
He asked the court through his counsel that he be exempted because he was “preoccupied with Islamabad regarding various official matters” and was unable to appear before the court.
In a separate but similar petition in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, Hamza said that as the chief minister of Punjab, he was “concerned with various important matters of an urgent nature and of a public welfare”. .
“It is because of preoccupation in carrying out constitutional duties that [I] I cannot appear before this honorary court today,” he said, according to a report in Dawn.
The court accepted both leaders’ applications and adjourned the hearing to July 16.
Shehbaz was permanently excused from appearing in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, in which he was nominated as the prime suspect along with Hamza.
The bail prior to Shehbaz’s arrest in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Rs 14 billion money laundering case was confirmed by a special court.
Deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed surprise that a suspect like Shehbaz, who is wanted in a multi-billion dollar money-laundering case, has been “relieved” by the courts.
“This man (Shehbaz) should be sent to jail in a money-laundering case instead of putting him in the prime minister’s seat,” Khan said at a recent rally.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a lawsuit against Shehbaz and Hamza in 2019, alleging that they “fraud and dishonesty” caused a loss of Rs 213 million to the national performance.
According to the NAB, when Shehbaz was the premier of Punjab, he issued a directive to build a sluice in Chiniot district mainly to benefit the sugar mills owned by his sons.
The anti-money-matching watchdog claimed to have obtained documents and evidence “sufficient to charge” during the investigation, the report said.
In the case of the Ashiana Housing Scheme, Shehbaz has been accused of abuse of power by unlawfully assuming the powers of the Punjab Land Development Corporation (PLDC) board of directors, and awarding the contract to an authorized company. Ineligibility leads to the failure of the housing scheme.
The scam has caused loss to the public and displaced 61,000 applicants, the report said.
It is also alleged that Shahbaz’s directive to entrust the housing project to the Lahore Development Authority from PLDC and interfere in the company’s affairs is a violation of the Companies Ordinance, Memorandum of Understanding and Articles of Association and Code of Corporate Governance 2013, it said.
The NAB has accused the former Minister through illegal acts and abuse of power that has caused losses of Rs 660 million and total project costs of Rs 3.39 billion.
Shehbaz was released on bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in both cases in February 2019, while Hamza was released on bail by the LHC in February 2020.
