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LAHORE: An Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday adjourned the proceedings in Ramzan Sugar Mills reference against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son former Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz and others till December 04 and sought arguments on a point whether it should start hearing of the reference afresh or continue from where an accountability court left the matter.

Earlier, the court also asked the counsel of PM Shehbaz and Hamza, to present his arguments on the law point whether the accused persons were supposed to be indicted.

The lawyer asked the court to first decide the acquittal applications filed by the accused persons.

However, he sought a short adjournment to prepare his detailed arguments.

The court observed that due to the high number of cases, a short adjournment cannot be given and adjourned the proceedings till December 04.

The reference was earlier returned to the NAB in 2022 after the accountability court lost its jurisdiction to further proceed with the matter as per an amendment in section 5 of the ordinance.

It was stated that the NAB, after the amendment, could not prosecute an alleged offence involving money less than rupees 500 million and the offence amount in the reference against the suspects was below the minimum value.

The accountability court was informed that the NAB in its reference made a case of alleged corruption of rupees 213 million.

Later, the Supreme Court had suspended the amendments leading to reopening of the reference by the NAB.

However, the apex court reversed its verdict and restored the amendments in September leading to transfer of the mills reference to the Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE).

The NAB filed the reference in 2018 alleged that PM Shehbaz being chief minister and his son Hamza with the abetment and connivance of each other caused a loss to national exchequer.

The reference said Shehbaz Sharif had issued a directive for the construction of a drain in district Chiniot for the use of Ramzan Sugar Mills owned by his sons- Hamza and Suleman.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

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