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LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday indicted Nusrat Shehbaz, wife of Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, in a money laundering case.
Judge Naseem Ahmed Virk announced the charges against Nusrat through a pleader as she is out of the country for her medical treatment. NAB prosecutor Usman Rashid Cheema was also present on the occasion.
In December last year, Ms Nusrat was declared an absconder by the accountability court for her non-appearance in the money laundering reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The court also accepted Shehbaz Sharif’s plea for exemption from appearance in the case. His lawyer, Chaudhry Nawaz, informed the court that his client was unable to appear in person due to ill health. The court subsequently approved his request.
Meanwhile, Shehbaz Sharif suspended all political activities a day ago as he was advised “complete rest” by doctors after he had slipped on a staircase.
Shehbaz Sharif, his wife Nusrat Shehbaz, sons Hamza and Salman Shehbaz and other family members are nominated in a reference filed by the NAB over alleged laundering worth Rs25 billion in the Ramazan Sugar Mills and Al-Arabiya Sugar Mills.
In August 2020, the NAB had filed before an accountability court Rs8 billion reference of money laundering against Shehbaz, his wife, his two sons and other family members.
It said the family members and “benamidars” of the Shehbaz family received fake foreign remittances of billions in their personal bank accounts.
The bureau said billions were laundered through foreign pay orders deposited in the personal bank accounts of Hamza and Suleman. The reference further said that Shehbaz’s family had failed to justify the sources of funds used for the acquisition of assets.
