An accountability court on Wednesday given Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz in custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for fourteen days remand to investigate cases of Ramazan Sugar Mills and money laundering/assets beyond means.
The court directed the NAB to produce him again on June 26. Hamza was arrested the other day from the Lahore High Court after his petitions for pre-arrest bail were dismissed as withdrawn.
Earlier, the presiding Judge asked the bureau's prosecution whether the documents for ground of arrest had been furnished to the accused. The prosecutor said, yes and stated that evidence so far collected revealed that the accused maintained various bank accounts in different banks in which credit turnover of Rs 500 million was observed during the years 2006 to 2017. He said the accused during 2012 to 2015 acquired various commercial and residential properties in Johar Town and Judicial Colony of Lahore valuing around Rs 167 million. He said the evidence also revealed that in year 2003 the total wealth of the accused was Rs 18.962 million that increased up to Rs 411 million in 2017 without having proportionate sources of income. He further pointed out that the accused received fictitious foreign remittances of Rs 181 million in one of his bank accounts, Rs 2.11 billion in the accounts of his brother Salman, mother Nusrat and close associates, benamidars and employees of their companies. The prosecutor said the inquiry held so far disclosed that the foreign remittances were also from fictitious sources.
The counsel of Hamza opposed the physical remand and said all the questions of the NAB had already been answered in writing. He said the prosecution had not been supplied complete documents to Hamza being used against him including a report of Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).
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