An accountability court in Lahore on Monday (April 29) adjourned the hearing of the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing cases till May 11, as Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz appeared before accountability court amid tight security in connection with both cases. The hearing was adjourned due to the absence of the judge scheduled to conduct the hearing.
Earlier Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Opposition Leader in National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif’s exemption plea has also been approved by the judge as he is in abroad for medical treatment.
NAB sources revealed that Hamza Shahbaz had declared property worth 2 crore in 2003 while his assets grew 2,000 percent during the PML-N’s tenure of the government. The opposition leader had allegedly laundered Rs85 billion. Officials revealed that they had already detained several facilitators of the Sharif family in the same case.
Earlier Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza has been indicted in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case. Hamza along with his brother Salman, is accused of embezzling Rs200 million from public funds in order to build a bridge benefiting Ramzan Sugar Mills — of which he is a director — in Chiniot. The money, according to NAB, was released by then chief minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif, who is also a suspect in the case. Hamza is also accused of owning assets beyond means and is being probed by a combined investigation team from NAB.
