LAHORE: A division bench headed by Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed a petition of Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz against an inquiry initiated by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in money laundering case as withdrawn.
Earlier, the counsel of Shehbaz contended before the court that the proceedings in the inquiry against the petitioners are on ulterior motive and with mala fide intention. He said the series of cases and repeated arrests of the petitioners in the past are classic examples of misuse of process of law enforcement agencies at the behest of the federal government.
He also questioned the jurisdiction of the FIA to register the impugned FIR as the agency did not have the jurisdiction to proceed in such matters. None of the suspects nominated in the FIR was a public servant in the service of the government or employee of any company/corporation.
He further argued that there is not even an allegation of causing loss to the public exchequer or any bank or any other financial institution, in the case. The FIA has also failed to produce any evidence of any proceeds of crime which is a mandatory condition to allege an offence under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010, he added.
He said the entire proceedings have been initiated against the petitioners when they were already in judicial lockup in reference by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on similar allegations.
The Chief Justice asked the counsel as to why he filed the petition after a delay of two years. The counsel said under the law there is no bar and a petition against the trial court proceedings could be filed at any stage.
The counsel further said under the law a person could not be booked in two cases on the same charges. He said the trial court could not decide the jurisdiction of the departments to file cases.
The Chief Justice, however, said, how a trial court could be restrained from proceeding further when the trial of the case was near to conclude and the inquiry had been completed. The Chief Justice also asked the counsel as to why he had not challenged the case filed by the NAB against the petitioners. He said NAB had filed the case earlier. The Chief Justice however asked the counsel to argue the comparison of the cases or filed an amended petition.
The counsel therefore requested the court allow him to withdraw the petition to file another petition and court dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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