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LAHORE, (MANEND NEWS): The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday informed a special court in Lahore that the agency wanted to arrest Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son CM Hamza Shahbaz in the Rs16 billion money laundering case.
“As it is mentioned in the challan, we do require their arrest for further investigation,” said the FIA prosecutor who was responding to a query put forth by the special central court judge on whether the agency requires the arrests of the accused in the money laundering case.
The premier and chief minister were present in the courtroom at this time.
As proceedings commenced, Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz (PMLN) counsel Amjad Pervez expressed to the court that the case was politically motivated, where party leaders were implicated in a forged case.
Pervez stated that the accused could not be tried for similar cases in two different courts, according to legal precedent, as another money laundering case was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The counsel further said that the FIA could not urge for the arrests of the prime minister and the chief minister as the challan had already been filed.
Pervez added that a suspect, ‘Mushtaq’ was neither made witness nor formally accused in the case yet the FIA claimed he had been investigated.
“The accused persons, when they were in jail, were investigated by the FIA. The previous government used all the state’s machinery against the accused when they were opposition leaders,” Pervez argued.
Meanwhile, with the consent of the court, the PM and the CM left the courtroom.
Earlier hearing
On May 28, the central judge of a Lahore special court reprimanded the FIA prosecutor over the submission of “incomplete” arrest warrants against Suleman Shehbaz, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in the money laundering case.
“Who prepared the arrest warrants? The name of Suleman’s father has not been mentioned here,” Judge Ijaz Awan remarked.
The court also initiated proceedings to declare Suleman a proclaimed offender in the case.
Premier Shehbaz, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz and other accused in the Rs16 billion money laundering case were present in the courtroom during the proceedings.
During the previous hearings, Judge Ijaz, on the request of the FIA, had initiated proceedings to declare three accused, including Suleman, proclaimed offenders.
During the hearing, the judge further asked about the status of Suleman’s arrest warrants.
The judge also pointed out to the FIA prosecutor, Farooq Bajwa, that the report prepared by the agency regarding the arrest of the premier’s son and the other two suspects had a lot of loopholes in it.
The judge said that on the one hand, the report states that D-41 Model Town does not exist as an address and on the other it states that the accused is not in the country.
The FIA prosecutor apprised the court that the address did exist but the suspect could not be found at the said location.
Read Court unable to indict Shehbaz, Hamza in money laundering case
The judge remarked that the report had also failed to mention other routine details about Suleman and another accused as well.
“The FIA will again issue the arrest warrants and submit a fresh report,” the prosecutor said, admitting that there were lacunas in the report.
Arguments
On May 21, the Special Court Central judge accepted the FIA’s plea to first initiate proceedings to declare three co-suspects — Suleman Shehbaz, Maqsood and Tahir Naqvi — as proclaimed offenders in the Rs16 billion money laundering case against PM Shehbaz Sharif and his son Punjab CM Hamza Shehbaz.
The accused’s counsel, Advocate Amjad Pervez, argued that the court had not declared them proclaimed offenders. “Only those suspects have been declared proclaimed offenders were mentioned in a challan submitted earlier to the court.,” he added. The judge then asked why the prosecution had remained silent on this matter for the past four months.
The prosecutor replied that since he is representing the prosecution, hence the court had been requested to initiate proceedings against the three suspects.
The accused’s counsel Amjad Pervez, drawing the court’s attention to a certain case’s facts and the weakness on the part of the FIA, argued that there was a delay in the registration of the FIR registered against his clients.
He informed the court that a transaction of Rs4 billion, which had been established with the sugar trade, had not been made part of the case record.
He further added that accused Mushtaq’s statement was not made part of the record.
The counsel said Rs4billion had been mentioned in the FIR, but interestingly enough the ledgers of this amount were not made part of the case record.
No details had been collected of those accounts’ transactions which the FIA had mentioned in the FIR. As the counsel was shedding light on certain facts, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took the rostrum.
“I want to say something if the court allows me,” the PM asked the judge.
With the court’s permission, the premier told the court that all-out efforts were made by the PTI government to establish corruption and money laundering cases against him.
The court issued arrest warrants of the three suspects, initiating proceedings against them to declare them proclaimed offenders.