LAHORE
\nAn accountability court in Lahore has acquitted former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Project reference.
\nOther accused including former director general of Lahore Development Authority Ahad Khan Cheema and interim Minister for Privatization Fawad Hassan Fawad were also exonerated in the reference.
\nJudge Ali Zulqarnain Awan announced the reserved verdict on Saturday.
\nThe other co-accused in the Ashiana reference were: Munir Zia, Imtiaz Haider, Bilal Qadwai, Sajjad Bhatta, and Shahid Mehmood.
\nIn his verdict, Judge Ali Zulqarnain Awan said that allegations of corruption against Shehbaz Sharif, Ahad Khan Cheema and others could not be proved. The NAB report had already given a clean chit to all the accused, the judge added.
\nThe court has been told that the decision of the Supreme Court does not stop the trial court from deciding the Ashiana reference.
\nAccording to the verdict, the accused did not take any advantage in the Ashiana case. The hearing on the case was held on merit in the accountability court. The court did not find evidence of corruption against the accused, the accused should be acquitted.
\nShehbaz\u2019s lawyer told the court that in the Ashiana Iqbal Project, not a single penny was lost to the national kitty and none of the accused got any financial benefit. He said that two other accused Naeem Zia Pirzada and Kamran Kayani were already acquitted in the case.
\nHe said that the Ashiana reference was filed in 2018 and nothing was proved during the last five years.
\nThe lawyer said that the reference was made to politically victimize Shehbaz Sharif and Ahmed Cheema. They were sent to jail in bogus reference.
\nEarlier in May this year, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had clered Shehbaz Sharif, the then prime minister, in the Ashiana Housing scandal.
\nThe Ashiana Housing scandal, which involved allegations of irregularities, had been a highly contentious issue. However, NAB\u2019s report had stated that no concrete evidence of corruption or misuse of authority was found during Bureau\u2019s inquiry which led it to give clean chit to Shehbaz Sharif.
\nThe report submitted by NAB officials in court had also emphasized that the accusations against Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Housing scandal could not be substantiated.
\nThe inquiry was conducted twice, and no evidence was discovered to support claims of any wrongdoing.
\nThe NAB report had further highlighted that Shehbaz Sharif did not derive any personal benefits from the Ashiana Housing project.
\nThe evidence presented had indicated that public officeholders did not exploit their positions for personal gain, nor did they cause any financial losses to the government treasury.
\nFurthermore, the NAB report had also cleared Fawad Hassan Fawad and Kamran Kayani from allegations of accepting bribes for awarding contracts.
\nThe NAB report had confirmed that the contract for the Ashiana Housing Scheme was awarded in accordance with the law and anti-corruption laws were strictly followed during the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE An accountability court in Lahore has acquitted former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Project reference. Other accused including former director general of Lahore Development Authority Ahad Khan Cheema and interim Minister for Privatization Fawad Hassan Fawad were also exonerated in the reference. Judge Ali Zulqarnain Awan announced the reserved verdict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-368814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n