An accountability court on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Nusrat Shehbaz and Rabia Imran. The wife and daughter of Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif were held accountable for money-laundering. Accountability Court Judge Syed Jawadul Hassan conducted the case proceedings. In proceedings, Hamza Shehbaz was not produced due to suffering from coronavirus. However another co-accused in the reference, Javeria was allowed to leave the court after marking her attendance.
At the outset of the hearing, the court asked about Suleman Shehbaz’s arrest. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor said that arrest warrants have been pasted outside the house of Suleman in London. The Foreign Office (FO) failed to present its report about Suleman and Haroon Yousuf. The court directed the officials of the FO to appear before the court on the next hearing along with the record.
Over continued non-appearance before the court, the AC issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Nusrat Shehbaz and Rabia Imran. Later, the hearing of the case was adjourned till October 5.
Charges and Arrest:
On Monday, the NAB arrested Shehbaz after the Lahore High Court (LHC) denied him further extension in his temporary bail. A NAB team arrested him from the courtroom and took him to the NAB Lahore headquarters with tight security. The adviser said to the Prime Minister that Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on the charges of money laundering amounting to over Rs7 billion.
Barrister Shahzad Akbar’s views:
Talking to a private news channel, Barrister Shahzad Akbar said that the assets of Shehbaz and his family have risen massively during the period of the last ten years. He said that Shehbaz used the bank account of his wife as Benami and various people transferred huge amounts of money in her account from time to time. He said that the NAB started the investigation regarding the assets of the opposition leader after the reports of the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).
The adviser also said that Maryam Nawaz is taking the advantage of being a woman. He said that Maryam is on temporary bail. He added that her bail should be challenged in the court as she is violating the Constitution.