The prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeared before the duty judge and sought time to file reference against the suspects. He said investigation into charges of money laundering was underway. He said reference will be submitted after completion of the investigation. The judge extended judicial remand of the suspects and directed the jail officials to produce them again on next date of hearing.

The judge after the hearing allowed Maryam Nawaz and Abbas to have a meeting with their lawyers only in a room adjacent to the court. Several party leaders including Nehal Hashmi, Danyal Aziz, Uzma Bukhari, Hina Pervez Butt and Muhammad Safdar attended the hearing.

On last hearing, the court had denied further custody of the suspects to the NAB and sent them to jail on judicial remand. The bureau mainly accused Maryam Nawaz of committing money laundering under the garb of sale/purchase of the sugar mills' shares. It said she became the largest shareholder of the mills in 2008 having over 12 million shares and her assets had been found disproportionate to her income during that period. It further said that the CSM was shifted from Gojra to Rahim Yar Khan in 2015 with a cost of Rs 1.5 billion and this amount had not so far been justified by the suspects.

On the other side, the defence side based its arguments mainly on the point of the jurisdiction of NAB to investigate matters of companies. It argued that power to investigate into any irregularity of a sugar mills vested with the SECP.

Maryam Nawaz in a brief conversation with media slammed ministers for running a malicious campaign.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019