Hamza Shehbaz sent on 14-day judicial remand in Ramzan Sugar Mills case

PML-N leader to be presented in court on July 20

LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday sent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Hamza Shehbaz on a 14-day judicial remand in the Ramzan Sugar Mills corruption case and possessing assets beyond known means of income, Express News reported.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials shall present the PMLN leader in court on July 20.

In June, the accountability court extended Hamza's physical remand after an initial 15-day remand following his arrest a day earlier.

Hamza Shehbaz arrested by NAB after bail plea withdrawn

The PML-N leader has been under NAB investigation in cases involving Ramzan Sugar Mills, Saaf Pani project and assets beyond known means of income.

Media talk 

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif also appeared in the court alongside his son Hamza.

On the occasion, the PML-N president asserted that the anti-graft body had concocted a "fabricated and baseless" case against him.

"I may be sinful but I have gone above and beyond to serve the nation's public," Shehbaz told the media.

Case background

The accountability watchdog claims to have found evidence of money laundering on a massive scale through which Hamza and his family allegedly accumulated assets in the United Kingdom.

According to sources privy to NAB’s probe, the allegedly illegally accumulated assets are worth Rs85 billion to Rs100 billion and were bought during Shehbaz Sharif’s tenure as the chief minister of Punjab.

NAB claims to have found that Hamza’s declared assets in 2003 were worth less than Rs20 million, which increased by almost 2,000% to over Rs410 million after his father became the chief minister.

Similarly, his younger brother Suleman Shehbaz’s personal wealth increased by 8,500 times and he now owns assets worth more than Rs3 billion.

The investigation started when NAB discovered “the huge volume of suspicious cash transactions” in the bank accounts of Shehbaz, Hamza, Suleman and other family members.

The Financial Monitoring Unit of NAB forwarded an application to the bureau’s chairman on January 12, 2018, to investigate the transactions.

An inquiry was allowed in October 2018 and later its status was turned into an investigation.

On April 3 this year, NAB arrested two suspects, Qasim Qayyum and Fazal Dad Abbasi, after founding evidence against them of their involvement in money laundering and other corrupt practices.

The way NAB operates is disgraceful to Pakistanis: Hamza Shehbaz

During the course of the investigation, it was found that Qayyum was running an illegal foreign exchange business at Sadiq Plaza on Mall Road and Ali Tower MM Alam Road between 2005 and 2018.

He collected cash from Suleman’s office in Model Town, Lahore. He then arranged fictitious foreign remittances to the bank accounts of Shehbaz, Hamza, Suleman and other members of the family. He used the identity cards of his employees or others, showing them as the source of these remittances.