The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday granted pre-arrest bail to PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif in assets and money laundering case.
According to Geo News, PML-N leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Fazal Chaudhry, and Rana Arshad are also present in the court for the hearing.
Earlier, authorities cordoned off the roads leading to the court to avoid any kind of destruction.
On June 1, Shahbaz's legal team filed a petition before being required to appear before the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) joint investigation team. However, the petition could not be fixed for hearing before the division bench set up to hear NAB-related petitions, nor did Shahbaz appear before the bureau.
The petition of the PML-N leader is at number 2 in the list of reasons for urgent cases before the bench.
Shahbaz has said in his petition that the inquiry against him outside the assets of the watchdog of corruption is based on unpleasant intentions as it was started at the behest of the incoming government. He added that the bureau had charged him without any evidence as he had been regularly declaring his assets.
The PML-N leader further said that he was also arrested in the same case in 2018 and he had fully cooperated with the NAB investigators. However, the anti-graft body did not find any misuse of powers or money laundering. No evidence was presented against him. .
Shahbaz's lawyer said that since he entered politics in 1988, his client had been declaring his assets and nothing had been hidden so far. He denied the money-laundering allegations, saying the whole story was fabricated and shocking.
He further said that NAB could not waive the provisions of anti-money laundering law during the investigation, adding that the allegations against him were of documentary nature and all necessary documents had already been provided to the bureau. Shahbaz added that he feared that the NAB would arrest him in connection with his pending interrogation, which would hinder him from performing his duties as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.
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