LAHORE: A special court on banking offences on Thursday extended pre-arrest bail of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and his son, Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz in Ramzan Sugar Mills’ money laundering and financial scam case.
Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz appeared before the court along with their lawyer before the court. During the hearing, the judge said bail petitions would be decided after looking into the challan.
Shehbaz told the court that he had not received any copy of the challan. The judge told him that he would get the challan. On this occasion, FIA lawyer read out the challan and said that Shehbaz Sharif and others are involved in money laundering.
The judge questioned whether the banking offences court has jurisdiction to hear the case. How was the challan submitted to this court? “We were asked by a duty judge on a previous date to submit the challan,” the FIA lawyer said. The judge said it was up to the prosecution to determine where the challan would be submitted in this court.
Shahbaz Sharif’s lawyer Amjad Pervez told the court that he could better assist the court only after going through the challan. He said bail petitions were filed after recognizing the jurisdiction of this court. The judge directed FIA to give copies of the challan to the accused and asked the prosecution to assist him on the point of jurisdiction.
Hamza Shahbaz Sharif told the court that he found out in the newspaper that he was accused of Rs16 billion money laundering. The judge said: “We have heard this. Let us first decide whether I have jurisdiction or not.” The court extended the bail of Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz till January 4, while summoning the lawyers on December 24 to discuss the jurisdiction of the court.