LAHORE: Justice Asjad Javed Ghural of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday refused to sit in a division bench due to personal reason hearing post-arrest bail petition of former defence minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif.

The bench however, referred the bail petition in an inquiry of assets beyond and money laundering initiated against Khawaja Asif by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to the LHC chief justice for its fixation before any other appropriate bench.

Earlier, the counsel of Khawaja Asif contended in the petition that the NAB had not been able to produce any evidence, disproportionate to his known sources of income.

He said mere ownership of a property did not constitute an offence under the NAB law.

The counsel said that the petitioner had already provided the NAB with an explanation of various sources of income justifying the acquisition of the assets owned and possessed by him. The NAB alleged that Asif failed to explain the sources of his income and assets. The NAB had arrested Khawaja Asif from Islamabad on December 29 last and later shifted to Lahore.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021