LAHORE An accountability court on Thursday declared three family membersof Oppos-ition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif absconders inmoney laundering and assets beyond the means case.
Shehbaz Sharif’s son Salman Shehbaz, daughter Rabia Imran and son-in-lawHaroon Yousuf were declared absconders after they failed to appear in thecourt despite repeated summons.
Accountability Court Judge Syed Jawadul Hassan conducted the caseproceedings, wherein jail authorities produced Shehbaz Sharif, HamzaShehbaz and others on expiry of their judicial remand term.
At the start of the proceedings, the accountability court judge and NABprosecutor Usman G Rashid Cheema condoled with Shehbaz Sharif over thedemise of his mother.
An associate of Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel Amjad Parvaiz requested the courtto adjourn the proceedings as the senior counsel could not appear due tohis engagements.
However, the court rejected the request and recorded statements of threeprosecution witnesses including Tayyab Zawar, Khalid Mehmood and FaisalBilal. The witness Faisal Bilal stated that, in 2019, he was posted asdeputy secretary Budget and Finance in the Punjab Assembly and he gaverecord of perks and privileges obtained by Shehbaz Sharif and his son HamzaShehbaz as members of the provincial assembly, to the NAB investigationofficer.
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At this stage, the court declared Salman Shehbaz, Rabia Imran and HaroonYousuf as absconders. The court observed that the accused were summonedthrough a proclamation, however, the accused had still not appeared in thecourt despite thirty days’ time period.
Subsequently, the court adjourned the further hearing till December 3 andordered for cross examination of the witnesses on the next date of hearing.
It is pertinent to mention here that the court did not declare ShehbazSharif’s wife Nusrat Shehbaz as absconder because thirty days’ time periodhad not completed.
The NAB had nominated 16 persons as accused in the case. However, only 10,out of 16, were indicted yet. Besides Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz,Javeria Ali, Fazl Dad Abbasi, Rashid Karamat, Muhammad Usman, MasroorAnwar, Nisar Ahmad, Shoaib Qamar, and Qasim Qayyum had been indicted in thecase. However, Salman Shehbaz, Nusrat Shehbaz, Rabia Imran, Syed MuhammadTahir Naqvi, Haroon Yousuf Zai and another could not be indicted due totheir absence.
