LAHORE – A court in Punjab’s capital city Wednesday acquitted PrimeMinister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz in the Rs16 billion moneylaundering case.

The Special Court, Central, announced the verdict after the FederalInvestigation Agency prosecutor informed the judge that no money wasdirectly deposited in the bank accounts of the father-son duo.

During today’s hearing, Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel argued that theinvestigation officer had attempted to twist the statements recorded bywitnesses in the case.

Not a single witness out of 161 has mentioned the names of Shehbaz Sharifand Hamza Shahbaz in their statements.

After hearing the arguments, the court had reserved its verdict.

In December 2021, the FIA had submitted the challan against Shehbaz andHamza before the special court for their alleged involvement in launderingan amount of Rs16 billion in the sugar scam case.

According to the FIA report submitted to the court, the investigation teamhas “detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which moneylaundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined themoney trail of 17,000 credit transactions.