NAB summons Hamza Shahbaz on April 10 in assets beyond means case

Last updated on: 08 April,2019 08:46 pm

Earlier today, the Lahore High Court (LHC) barred the NAB from arresting Hamza in the same case.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday issued another summon to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader and Punjab Assembly’s opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz to appear before its investigation team on April 10 at 11am in an ongoing probe into assets beyond known sources of income and money laundering case against him.

Earlier today, the Lahore High Court (LHC) barred the NAB from arresting Hamza for investigation into the same case by granting him pre-arrest bail till April 17 and directed the bureau to submit its response on the matter.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Malik Shehzad and Justice Waqas Rauf presided over the hearing.

As the hearing resumed, the court asked NAB’s prosecutor, “In which case the bureau wills to arrest Hamza?”

To which, the prosecutor told the court that there were three cases against Hamza; including assets beyond known sources of income, Saaf Pani and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases. However, arrest warrants have not been issued yet in Saaf Pani and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases.

Earlier on Saturday, the LHC had barred the bureau from arresting Hamza while giving him a protective bail till April 8 after he had filed a pre-arrest bail plea on the same day.

In the petition, Hamza had claimed that NAB’s team had carried out a raid at his residence without a prior notice while the LHC has instructed officials to give a prior notice before his arrest.

The plea further pleaded with the court for suspending the arrest warrants and an action against the NAB for “contempt of court”.

A team of the NAB swooped on the 96-H house, believed to be Shehbaz Sharif’s residence, allegedly because Hamza Shehbaz was "not cooperating" in the ongoing investigation in the case.

Money laundring allegation

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.