Money laundering case
\nFIA had \u2018mala fide\u2019 intentions for arresting Hamza Shehbaz and PM Shehbaz
\nLAHORE
\nA special court in the city said Monday that \u201cno evidence of corruption, misuse of authority, and bribery\u201d was so far found on record against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, in the Rs16 billion money laundering case.
\nIn a written order for confirming their pre-arrest bail, the higher court said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) wanted to arrest PM Shehbaz and CM Hamza after they secured bails in the National Accountability Bureau\u2019s (NAB) cases, showing that the FIA had \u201cmala fide\u201d intentions.
\nThe special court, which was hearing the Rs16 billion money laundering case filed by the FIA against the premier and Hamza, granted the two pre-arrest bail last week.
\n\u201c…allegation about gratification, corrupt practice, abuse of official authority, kickbacks, and commission requires further probe during the trial as at this stage cogent evidence is not available,\u201d the order read.
\nThe order said that the investigation office (IO), to date, has not mentioned in his diary that the petitioners were required to be in custody for further investigation.
\nThe investigation of the case has been completed and the charge sheet has also been submitted, therefore, the arrests are not required, the special court said, explaining its decision to grant the petitioners bail.
\nThe order mentioned that the statements of the 64 people recorded in the case \u2014 who had deposited the amounts \u2014 relate to Rs60.7 million and not Rs16 billion \u2014 as claimed by the FIA.
\nIt added that in the statements of the 64 depositors, none mentioned the names of the prime minister and the chief minister. \u201cMoreover, said statements do not spell out any bribery, kickbacks, or commission, etc.\u201d
\nProsecution\u2019s \u2018mal intent\u2019
\nThe order said that the FIA started investigating Hamza and PM Shehbaz when they were already in the NAB\u2019s custody. It noted that they were interrogated twice \u2014 on December 18, 2022, and January 8, 2021.
\nFollowing this, the FIA did not interrogate them for the next five months. Once they were released from NAB\u2019s custody, the court said FIA asked them to appear before it.
\nRead more: Money laundering case \u2018politically motivated\u2019, PM Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s counsel tells court
\n\u201cThis shows that the prosecution wanted to arrest them again after their release, which shows its mal intent,\u201d the special court\u2019s order said.
\nThe court added that although Hamza Shahbaz was the CEO of the Ramazan Sugar Mills, the prosecution was not able to prove that the accounts \u2014 used to launder money \u2014 were opened on his orders.
\nInitially, the FIA claimed that Hamza was involved in corruption worth Rs25 billion, but later, in the charge sheet, it said that he was involved in corruption worth Rs16 billion, the court mentioned.
\nThe case
\nIn December 2021, the FIA had submitted a challan against Shehbaz and Hamza to the special court for their alleged involvement in laundering Rs16 billion in a sugar scam.
\nAccording to the FIA report submitted to the court, the investigation team \u201cdetected 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.\u201d
\nThe report added that the amount was kept in \u201chidden accounts\u201d and \u201cgiven to Shehbaz in a personal capacity\u201d.
\nThis amount (Rs16 billion) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of Shehbaz\u2019s 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.
\n\u201cEleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who \u2018held and possessed\u2019 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,\u201d the agency had said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Money laundering case FIA had \u2018mala fide\u2019 intentions for arresting Hamza Shehbaz and PM Shehbaz LAHORE A special court in the city said Monday that \u201cno evidence of corruption, misuse of authority, and bribery\u201d was so far found on record against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1179,44,1635,8515,5822],"class_list":{"0":"post-266113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-corruption","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-hamza-shehbaz","11":"tag-no-evidence","12":"tag-pm-shehbaz-sharif"},"yoast_head":"\n