LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday adjourned to November 05 the proceedings in references of money laundering and Ramzan Sugar Mills against the Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and others and sought arguments from both the sides on the effect of the National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 on the ongoing trial.

Earlier, Shehbaz Sharif and his son Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz appeared before the court. Shehbaz told the court that he was scheduled to leave for Islamabad to attend the National Assembly session.

The court permitted the duo to leave after the process of their attendance was completed. A prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that prosecution witnesses were present in the court for their testimony. At this the counsel for Shehbaz said that the process of the evidence recording could not be held after the introduction of recent amendments in the NAB law.

The prosecutor; however, said the life of the ordinance was six months and it would not have any effect on the ongoing trials. The NAB alleged in the money laundering reference that the family members and benamidars of Shehbaz received fake foreign remittances of rupees billions in their personal bank accounts. In addition to these remittances, the Bureau said, billions of rupees were laundered by way of foreign pay orders, which were deposited in personal bank accounts of the sons of Shehbaz: Hamza and Suleman.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021