Pak court summons PM Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza on Sept 7 in money laundering case
Jul 30, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 30 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz have been summoned by a Lahore-based special court on September 7 in connection with PKR 16 billion money laundering case against them.
The court summoned the father-son duo on Sept 7 for the framing of charges and adjourned the hearing till that date, the Dawn newspaper reported.
The Pak PM and his two sons were booked by the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), in November 2020 under "sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34 and 109 of Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of Anti Money Laundering Act."
The Pakistani newspaper said Shehbaz's lesser-known son Suleman Shehbaz is in the UK and has been declared an absconder. A total of 14 others have also been named in the FIR in an anti-corruption act.
Shehbaz and Hamza have already been granted pre-arrest bail in the case filed by the FIA. Both of them have asked for a one-time exemption on their behalf during the hearing today.
Pakistan PM's lawyer told the court that Shehbaz Sharif had been advised not to travel as he was not well. "The weather was unpleasant yesterday which is why he did not come today."
Back in December last year, FIA had submitted the challan against Shehbaz and Hamza to a special court for their alleged involvement in the sugar scam case.
"The investigation team has detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions," the FIA report said.
According to the report, the amount was kept in hidden accounts and given to Shehbaz in a personal capacity.
"Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who 'held and possessed' the laundered proceeds on behalf of the principal accused, are found guilty of facilitating money laundering. The three other co-accused of the Sharif group also actively facilitated the money laundering," the agency was quoted as saying by Dawn.
