Court adjourns hearing of money laundering case against Shehbaz

LAHORE (APP): An accountability court on Tuesday adjourned hearing of money laundering case against Shehbaz Sharif family till January 16.

Accountability Court Judge Syed Jawadul Hassan conducted the case proceedings, wherein the jail authorities produced Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz.

During the proceedings, the court continued process of recording statements of witnesses and recorded statement of two more witnesses presented by NAB.

Advocate Amjad Pervaiz on behalf of Shehbaz Sharif requested with the court to seek record of 2014 tax audit of Shehbaz Sharif from authorities concerned, besides filing a written application for the purpose.

At this, the court sought record of the tax audit from Federal Board of Revenue and adjourned further hearing till January 16.

The court also directed bureau for presenting more witnesses on the next date of hearing.

The NAB had nominated 16 persons as accused in the case.

However, only 10, out of 16, were indicted yet. Besides Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, Javeria Ali, Fazl Dad Abbasi, Rashid Karamat, Muhammad Usman, Masroor Anwar, Nisar Ahmad, Shoaib Qamar, and Qasim Qayyum had been indicted in the case. However, Salman Shehbaz, Nusrat Shehbaz, Rabia Imran, Syed Muhammad Tahir Naqvi, Haroon Yousaf Zai and another could not be indicted due to their abscence.

In a reference, comprising 55 volumes, the bureau had alleged that Shehbaz Sharif family committed massive money laundering of Rs 7 billion.

Yasir Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmad, Shahid Rafique and Aftab were made approvers in the reference.