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LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted bail to PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif in the assets beyond means case.
A two member bench resumed hearing against the Leader of Opposition in National Assembly over money laundering and assets beyond means case. The court approved bail after instructing to submit two surety bonds of Rs5 million each.
During the hearing, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) representative completed argument seeking bail for the PML-N leader. The court granted bail to PML-N leader and directed authorities to release him from Kot Lakhpat jail.
Shehbaz Sharif had filed a bail petition on March 26 filed through advocates Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervez who argued that the proceedings by NAB were based on malafide intention.
It alleged that registration of series of cases in a quick succession and repeated arrests of the petitioner at the behest of the government had been a classic example of misuse of NAB process to muffle the voice of the petitioner as the leader of the opposition.
It contended that the petitioner had been facing inquiry on the allegation of assets beyond means since 2018. It also referred to the health issues of Shehbaz being 70-year-old and the delay in the trial proceedings.
In this reference, six out of 10 indicted suspects had already been released on post-arrest bail, including Shehbaz’s son Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz, Muhammad Mushtaq Cheeni, Shahid Rafiq, Aftab Mahmood, Fazal Dad Abbasi and Shoaib Qamar.
Shehbaz’s wife Nusrat, son Suleman, daughter Rabia Imran and son-in-law Haroon Yousaf have been declared absconders in the reference by the trial court.
NAB had arrested Shehbaz on September 28 after the LHC denied him further pre-arrest bail in the reference. He was first granted the interim pre-arrest bail on June 3. He remained in custody for 23 days till the trial court sent him on judicial remand on October 20, 2020.
Shehbaz was also arrested by NAB on Oct 5, 2018 in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme and later in Ramzan Sugar Mills case. The LHC had released him on bail in both cases on February 17, 2019.
