ISLAMABAD: Suleman Shehbaz, son of Prime Minster Shehbaz Sharif, has been granted protective bail of 14 days in two separate cases by Islamabad High Court as he surrendered today. Suleman Shahbaz had been declared absconder in a case related to money laundering, and was wanted by NAB in assets-beyond-known-means case.
اپڈیٹ
منی لانڈرنگ مقدمہ کے بعد آمدن سے زائد اثاثہ جات کیس میں بھی سلیمان شہباز کی حفاظتی ضمانت منظور
اسلام آباد ہائی کورٹ نے FIA کے بعد نیب کو بھی گرفتار کرنے سے روک دیا
نیب کیس میں بھی سلیمان شہباز اشتہاری ہیں لاہور کی 2 عدالتوں کے سامنے سرنڈر کرنے کے لیے ضمانت کرائی ہے https://t.co/zboMCUsGZY— MM News (@mmnewsdottv) December 13, 2022
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan heard Suleman’s petition today. The court directed Suleman Shehbaz to appear in the relevant courts, and barred both the FIA and NAB from arresting Suleman Shahbaz Sharif.
Earlier on December 8, it may be recalled, the IHC had issued orders restraining authorities from arresting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s son Suleman Shehbaz from the airport on his arrival to Pakistan and asked him to surrender before the court by December 13 (today).
سلیمان شہباز کو 14 روز تک حفاظتی ضمانت مل گئی۔ pic.twitter.com/6ZVlh6x7v3
— Khurram Iqbal (@khurram143) December 13, 2022
Suleman Shehbaz was declared proclaimed offender by Lahore special court on July 15, 2022, along with other suspects in a Rs16 billion money laundering case. After getting protective bail from IHC, he is now expected to appear before Lahore court in money laundering related case.
Money laundering case
In December 2021, the FIA submitted a challan against Shehbaz and Hamza to the special court for their alleged involvement in laundering Rs16 billion in a sugar scam.
According to the FIA report submitted to the court, the investigation team “detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed from 2008-18. The FIA examined a money trail of 17,000 credit transactions.”
The report added that the amount was kept in “hidden accounts” and “given to Shehbaz in a personal capacity”.
This amount (Rs16 billion) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of Shehbaz’s family), it claimed. The money allegedly received from the accounts of low-wage employees was transferred outside Pakistan via hundi/hawala networks, ultimately destined for the beneficial use of his family members, the FIA had said.
“Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who ‘held and possessed’ the laundered proceeds on behalf of the principal accused, are found guilty of facilitating money laundering. The three other co-accused of the Sharif group also actively facilitated the money laundering,” the agency had said.
NAB Case
In June 2020, the NAB seized Suleman’s shares amounting to Rs2billion in 16 companies along with cash worth Rs4.1 million held in three bank accounts as well as 10 marlas agricultural land and pieces of land spreading over 209 kanals.
The NAB had also alleged that assets worth Rs3.3b had been identified back then as illegally accumulated by Suleman, his brother Hamza Shehbaz and their father Shehbaz Sharif.
This was after an accountability court in Lahore declared him a proclaimed offender in October 2019 after a NAB prosecutor said the bureau had issued at least six call-up notices to the suspect, but he did not respond and fled the country to avoid investigation.
