Money laundering and assets beyond means cases: Court extends Hamza's physical remand till July 24

On June 26, the court extended Hamza's physical remand for 14 days upon NAB’s request.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – An accountability court in Lahore on Wednesday extended physical remand of the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz till July 24 in the money laundering and assets beyond means cases.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore produced Hamza before the court.

As the hearing resumed, the NAB prosecutor told the court that the accused has not been coordinating in the investigation. “He hasn’t been disclosing source(s) from where he bought the house of 96-H Model Town and undeclared his property in the tax returns,” the prosecutor said.

Contrarily, Hamza’s defense counsel argued before the court that the property was owned by his client’s mother, and she had been filing her tax returns.

He further maintained that the case was related to assets beyond means and not corruption.

“The NAB claims that according to the evidence it has obtained the assets worth Rs3.3 billion are illegal, then why the bureau has been seeking Hamza’s physical remand?” he asked.

Meanwhile, police ensured strict security arrangements outside the judicial complex and blocked adjoining roads for routine traffic. The litigant public has been denied entry to the complex.

On June 26, the court extended Hamza’s physical remand for 14 days upon NAB’s request.

On June 11, the accountability watchdog had arrested Hamza in the same cases shifted him to the bureau’s headquarter at Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore as the Lahore High Court (LHC) turned down his applications for extension in his interim bail.

In the hearing on June 11, Salman Butt, the defense counsel for Hamza, had argued that according to the NAB ordinance, the bureau could not issue arrest warrants unless an inquiry over the matter was completed.

He had further stated that in this case, the investigation into money laundering case was still ongoing and his client was coordinating with the investigation team.

To which, Justice Naqvi had remarked that the judgment would be done according to the constitution, and justice would be ensured.

Contrarily, the NAB prosecutor had stated that Hamza’s arrest warrants were issued according to the law as the Financial Monitoring Unit had found his involvement in the money laundering.

Moreover, the prosecutor had submitted complete details of assets of Shahbaz Sharif’s family members in the court with an argument that their assets were beyond their known sources of income.

Regarding money laundering accusations, the prosecutor said not only Hamza, but Shehbaz Sharif, Nusrat Shehbaz and Salman Shehbaz were also involved in the crime.

“Billions of rupees were added to the assets of Shehbaz’s family, whereas Hamza couldn’t provide details of the sources of his income,” he added.

The bench was further told by the NAB that in the year 2018, his assets were found to be worth Rs410 million, whereas he could not prove assets worth Rs380 million, and the money was laundered to Dubai and England, and 40 individuals were involved in the money laundering.

The court was also informed that the bureau had already arrested two money exchangers, and that [out of the total 40] 38 individuals have not confessed [their crime] despite of the fact that the amounts were transferred from their accounts.

“Rs180 million were laundered and Hamza was unable to provide sources of the amount,” the prosecutor concluded.