Sharif family gets a clean chit from Lahore Court over money laundering charges worth Rs 7 billions

Sharif family gets a clean chit from Lahore Court over money laundering charges worth Rs 7 billions

LAHORE – An accountability court in the Punjab capital on Thursday acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shahbaz and others in Rs7 billion money laundering case.

Accountability Judge Qamar-ul-Zaman announced the verdict in the case in which Nusrat Shehbaz, Suleman Shehbaz, Rabia Shehbaz and others were nominated.

The court has accepted the acquittal pleas of all suspects but issued arrest warrants for Rabia Shehbaz for skipping the hearings.

The development comes months after the prime minster and others were declared “innocent” by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after completing investigation in references related to assets beyond means and money laundering involved Rs7 billion.

The anti-graft watchdog submitted its report to the court. Earlier, all the suspects had been declared guilty by NAB in the Rs7 billion references, claiming that their assets held by the Shehbaz family swelled from Rs2 million to Rs7 billion.

The investigation was launched against PM Shehbaz, his wife Nusrat Shehbaz, sons Hamza and Suleman Shehbaz, and daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali in the references after 177 suspicious transaction of the family were detected.

The Shehbaz family has been rejecting the allegations.