PM, son acquitted in money laundering case

An accountability court on Thursday acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz alongside other co-accused in a money laundering case. Announcing the reserved verdict, however, Judge Raja Qamar uz Zaman also issued perpetual arrest warrants for the PM's daughter Rabia Imran for her sustained failure to appear before the court. Notably, Shehbaz Sharif, his wife Nusrat Shehbaz and children Hamza, Salman and Rabia were among the 16 individuals accused in the corruption reference. According to the reference, the accused had been involved in a money laundering scandal amounting to over Rs7.32 billion. Shehbaz Sharif was accused of having laundered over Rs5 billion and built assets from it while Hamza was accused of laundering around Rs1 billion. Read Court seeks reply on Suleman’s acquittal plea Earlier this month, PM Shehbaz and his son moved motions in the accountability court for their acquittal in money laundering references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during the rule of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. In their applications filed through Amjad Pervaiz, Shehbaz and Hamza have contended that NAB filed a false and fabricated case and that the accountability watchdog has no evidence to prove the case. They stated that they had declared all their assets—which were acquired through legal means—to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). They requested the accountability court to acquit them from the case. Last year, a special central court acquitted PM Shehbaz and Hamza Shehbaz in another money laundering case worth Rs16 billion. The special court judge had reserved the decision after hearing detailed arguments on the acquittal application of both the accused persons. However, after acquitting the aforesaid, the court summoned the rest of the accused for framing of charges in the case.