Ashiana Housing case: Court adjourns hearing against Shehbaz Sharif, others till Dec 20

Dunya News

Pakistan

Ashiana Housing case: Court adjourns hearing against Shehbaz Sharif, others till Dec 20

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Accountability court on Monday has adjourned the hearing of Ashiana Housing reference against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif till December 20.

The PML-N leader, former Director General (DG) of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema and others appeared before the court.

During the proceedings, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) failed to submit reply on the acquittal plea of Shehbaz Sharif and other accused and sought time from the judge.

The court approved NAB’s appeal and postponed the hearing.

Earlier, accountability court had nullified the decision of exempting Shehbaz Sharif from the hearings in connection with Ashiana Housing reference.

The court had summoned Shehbaz Sharif in personal capacity and said, “It’s not appropriate to exempt an accused in one case while he is appearing in another one.”

On October 5, 2018, NAB had arrested Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam for awarding illegal contracts to his favorite firm. However, in February 2019, he was granted bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The anti-corruption watchdog had claimed that the company did not conduct any kind of survey but nevertheless was provided a lucrative sum of Rs 1.5 billion.

Ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad became an approver in the case.