Money laundering case: Shehbaz Sharif released on bail from Kot Lakhpat Jail

(Karachi) PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has been released on bail from Kot Lakhpat Jail in a money laundering case after completion of legal formalities, local media reported on Friday.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) had approved PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’sbail after the initial order of the court, granting bail to the opposition leader, was sent to the referee judge due to a dispute between the judges.

A three-member bench of the LHC, comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, Justice Alia Neelum, and Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, heard the bail application of the PML-N president.

Last week, a division bench comprising Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural, issued a split decision on the petition of Shahbaz, sending the matter to the chief justice for the nomination of a referee judge.

Justice Dogar, the head of the bench, had allowed the petition while Justice Ghural dismissed the same on merit. In his dissenting note, Justice Ghural accused the senior judge of issuing the bail granting short order ‘unilaterally’.

Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) special prosecutor informed the court that there is an allegation of the transfer of Rs533 million against Shehbaz through TTs (telegraphic transfer).

He declared his assets as Rs2.1 million in 1990, which reached Rs41 million in 1998, the prosecutor argued.

He said that several properties are in the name of Shehbaz Sharif’s wife Tehmina Durrani that are under his control. He added that about 13 industrial units and benami companies are in the name of Shehbaz and his relatives.

"The relatives were also the shareholders in the companies," the NAB prosecutor told the judges.

The prosecutor added that eight major companies had also been established between 2008 and 2018. The assets of Rs299 million and 26 TTs had been transferred to Nusrat Shehbaz.

Suleman Shehbaz, the son of the accused, received TTs valuing Rs1 billion and Rs60 million, the NAB prosecutor contended.

The NAB prosecutor said the money directly was not transferred to Shehbaz's accounts but those of his relatives, who then gave him the money when he needed it.

The NAB prosecutor stated that the people who had sent the TTs told the anti-graft body that they had never gone abroad.