An accountability court in Lahore on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif's wife Nusrat Shehbaz and daughter Rabia Imran in concealment case.
The arrest warrants were issued after Nusrat and Imran did not appear for the hearing of the case, during which they're nominated. Meanwhile, Shehbaz's daughter Javeria Ali's request for permanent exemption from court hearings was accepted.
Condemning the event , PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the "selected government has crossed all limits [...] in political revenge".
In a statement posted on Twitter, Aurangzeb said: "Fascist and dictatorial tactics against political opponents will remain as a black stain on Mr Imran's forehead."
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD
The court also granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) a 14-day physical remand of Leader of the Opposition within the National Assembly Shehbaz, each day after he was arrested by the anti-graft body within the concealment case.
On Monday, the Lahore supreme court (LHC) rejected Shehbaz's bail plea, after which he was taken into custody from the court's premises, where an outsized number of PML-N workers and supporters had gathered before the hearing.
Accountability judge Jawadul Hassan presided over the hearing today, during which Shehbaz also spoke. He alleged that a mockery was being made from the law. "This is that the NAB-Niazi nexus [in play]," he added.
He said that his parents had worked hard and established the business, which he had then transferred to his children. "I don't take any salary or bonus. An allegation was leveled against me that my children benefited due to my [government] office.
"I submitted five documents within the Lahore supreme court yesterday. We didn't reduce the worth of sugarcane in Punjab and that i didn't cause harm to the growers. I didn't give any subsidy to my children's sugar mills from the treasury.
"My decisions caused a loss of many rupees to my brother (Nawaz Sharif) and to my son. i'm a transgressor [but even] the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that a father isn't liable for his son and the other way around ."
The judge asked him what proportion had the national treasury benefited from the choices he made while he was in office to which Shehbaz replied that it had been in "billions".
The PML-N president said that he had fixed excise duty of Rs2 on ethanol in 2011, adding that he had decided to impose the duty albeit his son was fixing an ethanol plant.
"Rs2.5bn were deposited within the national treasury due to that," he told the court.
He said that his father had migrated to Pakistan from India and found out six factories within 18 months. "These properties are from that point ," he said.
He said that he was "declaring under oath that he had not benefited from any scheme for the repayment of loans which he had never used his office wrongfully".
"I didn't take a salary of even one rupee in three decades or any ta-da," he claimed, adding that he also wont to buy his personal assistant's lodgings during his stays abroad.
During the proceedings, the court also directed that Shehbaz's performance report be made a part of the case.
NAB's counsel, Asim Mumtaz, requested the court to grant the accountability body 15-day physical remand of Shehbaz. He was representing the accountability watchdog alongside NAB special prosecutor Barrister Usman Rashid Cheema.
"Shehbaz has himself said that his children depend upon him. We asked him questions last night but he outright refused to answer them."
The court, however, granted a 14-day physical remand which might expire on October 13.
'Shehbaz arrested to manage elections'
Speaking to reporters outside the court, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Shehbaz had been arrested to "paralyse the decisions" of the multiparty conference.
"Shehbaz has been arrested therefore the government can manage the elections in Gilgit Baltistan and therefore the local elections [in Punjab]."
"Why [else] is there a requirement to arrest someone when the trial has started?" she questioned.
Money laundering case
The reference mainly accuses Shehbaz of being beneficiary of assets held within the name of his relations and benamidars who had no sources to accumulate such assets. It says the suspects committed offences of corruption and corrupt practices as envisaged under the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 and concealment as delineated within the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.
A total of 20 people had been nominated within the reference, including four approvers Yasir Mushtaq, Muhammad Mushtaq, Shahid Rafiq and Aftab Mahmood.
The main suspects are Shehbaz’s wife Nusrat, his sons Hamza (leader of opposition in Punjab) and Suleman (absconder), and his daughters Rabia and Javeria.
According to NAB, Shehbaz accumulated assets worth Rs7,328mn — which are disproportionate to his known sources of income — "in connivance together with his co-accused relations , benamidars, front persons and shut associates [...] developed an organised system of cash laundering".
The accountability watchdog further said that the accused within the case had "created fake/fictitious sources of income" so as to "justify the assets" which are beyond their known sources of income.
Shehbaz was arrested on October 5, 2018, in other cases — Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme. He was in NAB's custody when the inquiry into assets was authorised on Oct 23, consistent with Shehbaz's bail petition.
0 Comments
waseemabbas121a@gmail.com