LAHORE:
The Special Court Central judge on Saturday accepted FIA’s plea to first initiate proceedings to declare three accused in the Rs16 billion money laundering case, including Salman Shehbaz Sharif as proclaimed offenders and issued their arrest warrants in the case.
As the proceedings commenced today, FIA prosecutor Farooq Bajwa opposed the framing of charges against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and others.
He argued that the FIA does not want to leave any loophole to benefit the accused in the case and then submitted an application arguing that the court had taken the cognizance of this matter, hence it will be more appropriate to first initiate the proceedings against the three accused who had not appeared before the court for a long time.
The FIA’s prosecutor further argued that the agency did not want to leave any lacuna in this case which could benefit the accused persons at any stage. Meanwhile, the PM Shehbaz Sharif also filed an acquittal application in court.
The judge remarked that the accused Salman Shehbaz, Maqsood and Tahir Naqvi had already been declared proclaimed offenders by the magisterial court.
The accused’s counsel, Advocate Amjad Pervez, argued that the court had not declared proclaimed offenders those accused who had been declared proclaimed offenders in challan submitted earlier in court.
Judge Ijaz Hassan Awan then asked why had the prosecution remained silent in this regard for the past four months. The prosecutor replied that since he is representing the prosecution, hence the court had been requested to initiate proceedings against the three accused.
The accused’s counsel Amjad Pervez, drawing the court’s attention to certain case facts and the weakness on the part of the FIA, argued that there was a delay in the registration of the FIR registered against his clients.
He implored the court that the Rs4 billion transaction, that had been established with the sugar trade, could not be made part of the case record.
He further added that accused Mushtaq’s statement was not made part of the record and said Rs4billion had been mentioned in the FIR, but interestingly enough, the ledgers of this amount were not made part of the case record.
No details had been collected of those accounts’ transactions which the FIA had mentioned in the FIR. As the counsel was shedding light on certain facts, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took the rostrum.
Shehbaz takes the rostrum
“I want to say something if the court allows me,” the PM asked the judge.
With the court’s permission, the premier told the court that all-out efforts were made by the PTI government to establish corruption and money laundering cases against him and all documents and pieces of evidence that the PTI deemed fit and substantial were produced against him. However, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) could not prove corruption of a single penny.
“Had corruption been established against me I would have not been here in the court, the PM said. The prime minister then left the rostrum and his counsel resumed his arguments.
Counsel’s arguments
The premier’s counsel informed the court that no evidence is available on record which could prove the guilt of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The bankers were forced to record their statements against the accused persons purely on political bases. The cases prepared against the PM and the CM and his family members amount to nothing, he said.
“Every fantasy was made part of the record rather than collecting or producing substantial evidence,” advocate Amjad Pervez argued.
He added that although the premier had forbidden him to reveal the details, he would like to inform the court that “the person against whom the charges of corruption and money laundering are being levelled did not even withdraw his salary, nor take any travelling allowance and paid for fuel from his own pocket for official vehicles”.
He told the court that those who deposited the amounts in the accounts had not ever been investigated. “Challan of this case had been kept pending since 16 months, although the challan is submitted within 14 days after registration of the FIR.”
“More interesting, the investigating officer of this case, after the passage of a year, made those people accused persons who were once the witnesses of this case,” Pervez told the court.
“The allegation is levelled on them [accused] that some cash was taken through police vans but no evidence and no statement of anyone is available on the record,” he argued.
The counsel told the court that statements of 27 bankers were recorded under section 161 and seven bankers under section 164 but were hidden. On the intervention of the court, those statements were brought before us. He said the statements were hidden as they were not in the favour of the FIA, he argued.
At one point, Pervez also submitted some facts and case details in writing before the court. He then prayed to the court to grant the PM and CM exemption from their personal appearance to which the judge replied the court will see when something will be submitted in written form.
However, the court first adjourned the proceedings briefly and then resumed. It then issued arrest warrants of the said accused, initiating proceedings against them to declare them proclaimed offenders.
The court then adjourned proceedings to May 28.
Last week, reports emerged that the FIA had withdrawn its case against Shehbaz and Hamza. The FIA subsequently issued a press release repudiating the reports, saying that the “case has not been withdrawn” and court proceedings were ongoing.
Shehbaz and his sons — Hamza and Suleman — were booked by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in November 2020 under Sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34 and 109 of the PPC and 5(2) and 5(3) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of Anti Money Laundering Act.
Fourteen others were also named in the FIR under Sections 5(2) and 5(3) (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, read with 3/4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.