LHC extends interim bail of Shehbaz Sharif till July 23

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has extended interim bail of Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif till 23rd July in two corruption cases.

A two-member bench of LHC, headed by Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem and Justice Abid Masood Naqvi conducted the hearing of two corruption cases i.e. assets beyond means and money laundering case. 

Shehbaz Sharif appeared before the court while his two senior lawyers could not as they were in Islamabad. The PML-N president requested the court to extend his bail. In the court, Shehbaz Sharif said that despite the instructions of the doctors, he came to respect the court.

However, the opposition leader did not appear in the last hearing due to coronavirus. It is pertinent to remember that the bench dissolved the pleas filed by Shehbaz Sharif on 11th July. Last month on 1st June, Shehbaz Sharif filed the petition in LHC to avoid arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in both cases.

Read more: NAB closes 20-year-old probe against Shehbaz Sharif

Shehbaz Sharif in his plea took the stance that the NAB might arrest him in a pending inquiry. The bureau made the case with hateful intentions as he has been declaring his assets regularly, Shehbaz said.

Chairman NAB and others have been made parties in the petition. The petition, which was filed through Advocate Amjad Pervaiz, states that Shehbaz Sharif started his business in 1972 and played an important role in agriculture, sugar, and textile industries and joined politics in 1988 for the betterment of the society.