LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Chief Justice allowed an application of a lawyer seeking early hearing of his pending petition against federal minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and his brother provincial minister Hashim Jawan Bakht on charges of accumulating illegal assets and registrar office fixed the petition for hearing on May 12.

The petitioner Ahsan Abid; a lawyer from Rahim Yar Kahn sought court’s directions against National Accountability Bureau for submission of a reference against the Khusro brothers before a relevant court.

The petitioner said the NAB was bound to complete the inquiry and submit its report before the relevant accountability court. However, he alleged, the bureau had not submitted the report due to the pressure of the federal minister.

The petitioner contended that the Khusro brothers owned six sugar mills, several investment companies and agricultural land. He said these assets were beyond known sources of their income. He said the names of the Makhdoom brothers also appeared in “Pandora Papers” and “Swiss Papers” but no action had been initiated against them.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022