FIA wants to ‘arrest PM, Punjab CM’

Court reissues arrest warrants for Suleman Shehbaz, Tahir Naqvi and Malik Maqsood in money laundering case

LAHORE:

The counsel for the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday told a special court judge that his client wanted to arrest both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, in a money laundering case involving Rs16 billion.

Special Court (Central-I) Presiding judge Ijaz Hassan Awan also reissued arrest warrants for PM Shehbaz’s other son, Suleman Shehbaz as well as Tahir Naqvi and Malik Maqsood in the case.

During the previous hearing, the court had directed the FIA counsel to submit the challan again pointing out that there were flaws in the one presented to it.

The agency submitted another challan against the father and son duo to the court.

The date of birth and full address of the suspects have been mentioned in the new challan as well as the death of Suleman’s co-accused Shabbar has been confirmed.

However, the FIA did not make any changes in the investigation process and the witnesses in the case.

According to the new challan, arrest warrants were re-issued by the FIA. The court sought a report on the arrest warrants of the suspects till June 11.

Mohammad Amjad Pervaiz, the lawyer representing PM Shehbaz and his son began his arguments for Hamza’s bail.

He contended that the case had been investigated for one and a half years and but still no proof was on record.

He added that the father and son were in jail and were also interrogated in the case.

“Even though they were already in jail, the FIA instead of taking them into custody remained silent for months.”

Read Court unable to indict Shehbaz, Hamza in money laundering case

Without naming the PTI, he maintained that there had been the “worst political engineering” in the country’s history during the previous tenure.

“In the previous regime, the state machinery was used to suppress political opponents. The Lahore High Court has also declared political engineering a reality.”

The lawyer argued that a man named “Mushtaq Cheeni” had been included in the investigation, but he was neither made a witness nor a suspect.

FIA counsel Farooq Bajwa maintained that Muhammad Usman, the chief financial officer of the Sharif Group of Companies, and another suspect were not included in the investigation.

Pervaiz replied that the court should not be misguided. He added that the two suspects that the NAB prosecutor had mentioned were summoned and made to sit for two hours.

The FIA counsel contended that the suspects, without naming Shehbaz or Hamza, had not been included in the investigation.

The lawyer for the father and son duo replied that the suspects had been included in the investigation and that the FIA counsel was making a false statement.

Shehbaz and Hamza later left after taking permission from the court.

The court extended the interim bail of the suspects till June 11.

PM Shehbaz then reached an accountability court for the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana housing scheme references.

The court accepted Hamza’s application for not appearing before it.

It adjourned the hearing till June 15, rejecting Premier Shehbaz’s plea for putting it off till June 20.