FIA counsel pleading case against Sharifs faints in court

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Special Prosecutor Farooq Bajwa on Friday fell unconscious in a court in Lahore, where money laundering case against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz was being heard.

His condition deteriorated inside the court and he fainted. He was rushed to Services Hospital’s emergency ward, where he was undergoing medical examination. Farooq is representing the FIA against PM Shehbaz and his son.

A day earlier, a key witness in the money laundering case against PM Shehbaz and his family, popularly referred to as Maqsood Chaprasi, passed away due to a cardiac arrest.

Maqsood was living abroad and was made party to the case after money was allegedly found to have been transferred into his account during an investigation into claims of money laundering by the Sharif family.

Earlier this month, the FIA prosecutor had told a special court judge that his client wanted to arrest both PM Shehbaz and his son Hamza in the money laundering case involving Rs16 billion.

Also read: FIA wants to ‘arrest PM, Punjab CM’

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

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

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

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

Also read: Key figure in PM Shehbaz money laundering case 'Maqsood Chaprasi' passes away

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

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

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

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

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