Money laundering, illegal assets reference: LHC sets aside order of declaring Nusrat absconder

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday set aside an order of a trial court declaring Nusrat Shehbaz, wife of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif as absconder in money laundering and illegal assets reference.

PML-N Deputy General Secretary, Attaullah Tarar as special attorney of Ms Nusrat Shehbaz, at present living in London, had filed a petition challenging the proceedings pending against her before an accountability court.

The petitioner pleaded that she was an old and infirm woman of over 66 years and was a known chronic patient of a number of serious ailments including cardiac. She had to go abroad during early 2019 for health reasons and since then she is stuck there for medical treatment.

Ms Nusrat Shehbaz said she was already abroad when the NAB started to issue call-up notices to her. She also questioned the jurisdiction of the trial court to issue arrest warrants. She asked the court to set aside the impugned order of the trial court.

Earlier, NAB’s special prosecutor said the prosecution would not oppose the petition if conditions of the prosecution were fulfilled.

He said the petitioner needed to appoint a pleader to attend the trial proceedings on her behalf.

The court after hearing both the sides and consent of the petitioner’s counsel gave to the prosecution allowed the petition.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021