LAHORE: A special court in Lahore on Thursday set February 18 for the indictment of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif his sons Hamza and Suleman, and others for their alleged involvement in Rs16bn money laundering case.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked Shehbaz and his sons in November 2020 under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34 and 109 of Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of Anti Money Laundering Act.
Fourteen others have also been named in the FIR. The special court had on Jan 27 granted pre-arrest bail to Shehbaz and Hamza in the case.
During the hearing today, the FIA requested the court to cancel pre-arrest bails given to the PML-N leaders. The court ordered the investigation agency to provide copies of the challan to the suspects.
Subsequently, the court issued a short order, fixing Feb 18 for framing of charges against the suspects.
The FIA had in December 2021 submitted the challan against the Leader of Oppostion in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza to a special court for their alleged involvement in laundering an amount of Rs16 billion in the sugar scam case.
“The investigation team has detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions,” according to an FIA report submitted to the court.
This amount has nothing to do with the sugar business of Shehbaz family. The money received from the accounts of low-wage employees by Shehbaz was transferred outside Pakistan via hundi/hawala networks, ultimately destined for beneficial use of his family members, the FIA had alleged.
