LAHORE – A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Wednesday extendedinterim bail of Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz leader Hamza Shahbaz in Ramzan Sugar Mills, Saaf Pani andassets cases till May 27.
The bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi heard pre-arrest bail petitions filed by the PML-N leader in the cases.
At the outset of the proceedings, Hamza Shahbaz alongwith his lawyers appeared before the bench besides NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB) prosecution team.
Hamza’s counsel argued that reasons for initiatinginquiry were not being provided, in response to a court query.
The NAB prosecutor submitted that Hamza acquired illegalassets whereas he also received amounts through benamidaraccounts from abroad. He contended that NAB chairman issued Hamza’s arrestwarrants on solid reasons.
The NAB prosecutor mentioned that the petitioner hadrequested for provision of documents of financial monitoringunit which were sensitive. He submitted that sensitivedocuments could not be provided to Hamza Shahbaz whereas otherdocuments had already been given to him.
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However, Hamza’s counsel argued that the documents wereimportant for defence in the case. He requested the court forprovision of the said documents.
At this, the NAB prosecutor submitted reports of thefinancial monitoring unit to the court, saying that thereports could not be made public. He submitted financialmonitoring unit was an independent institution and as per its rules, therewas three years punishment on making theinformation public.
Subsequently, after hearing arguments of the parties, thebench adjourned further hearing till May 27 and extendedinterim bail of Hamza Shahbaz.
