LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday adjourned hearing of the Ramzan Sugar Mills reference against Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and summoned prosecution witnesses.

The jail officials brought Shehbaz to the court where his son Hamza Shehbaz, who leads opposition in the Punjab Assembly, also came to attend the proceedings.

Judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry also referred a matter of Hamza’s thumb impression on his bail bonds in the case for verification to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA).

The judge had taken notice against the jail officials’ inefficiency to get signatures of Mr Hamza on his bail bonds in the reference.

Asked about the authenticity of his thumb impression, Hamza said the jail officials had obtained his thumb impressions on some documents at the time of his release, but he was unable to remember the nature of the papers.

The judge directed the PFSA to verify the signatures of Hamza and adjourned the hearing till March 25.

In its reference, the NAB alleged that Shehbaz, being chief minister of Punjab, had issued a directive for the construction of a drain in Chiniot district, mainly for the use of Ramzan Sugar Mills, that is owned by his sons. It said Rs200 million was spent on the drain from the public money.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2021