LAHORE: Additional district & sessions judge Syed Ali Abbas acting as a duty judge for a special court (offences in bank) on Saturday directed the investigating officer of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to strictly follow human rights and not cause any harassment to leader of opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif during the investigation.

The court was hearing the pre-arrest bail matter in sugar scam and money laundering inquiry against Shahbaz Sharif who accused the investigators of misbehavior and humiliating him during the inquiry.

Shehbaz complaint, "the investigators spoke loudly, laughed at me and mocked me during the investigation."

He said, the investigation team called another person in the room and started interrogating him while making noise.

"Being irked with the mistreatment, I stood up and asked them the reason behind their misconduct," Shehbaz said, adding that he never witnessed such a 'nasty talk' the FIA team did during the interrogation.

Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz also appeared before the court which extended the pre-arrest bail of both till August 02. Earlier, the IO told the court that the suspects joined the investigation, however, the investigation had not been completed so far. He said the record of the case was being collected and the investigation would soon be concluded. Shehbaz claimed that he gave satisfactory answers to all the queries of the investigation team.

Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman were booked by the FIA in November 2020 under financial fraud, impersonation, forgery, criminal misconduct and money laundering.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021