LAHORE: A special court (Central-I) on Monday sought arguments from the defence on an application of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) seeking day-to-day hearing of the money laundering case against Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and others.

Shehbaz and his son Hamza appeared before the court on expiry of their pre-arrest bail in the case.

An FIA prosecutor told the court that the prosecution wanted a day-to-day hearing in the case. He also filed an application to the effect.

Hamza’s counsel Azam Nazir Tarar argued that he would have no objection to the prosecution request if the court was holding proceedings in other cases on a daily basis as well. He said cases were already pending against the suspects before other courts on similar allegations wherein they had been granted bail.

He asked the court to confirm the bail of the suspects in the instant case as well.

Through another application, the prosecution sought action against Shehbaz and other suspects on contempt of court charges.

The application accused Shehbaz of delaying the process of the indictment and interrupting the proceedings of court by delivering a time wasting speech at the last hearing.

It said the speech was absolutely irrelevant to the facts and proceedings of the case and amounted to willfully interrupting the judicial proceedings. It accused another suspect of delaying the trial proceedings by moving an application challenging the jurisdiction of the court.

Presiding Judge Ijaz Hassan Awan handed over both applications to the defence for submission of replies.

Mr Tarar sought an adjournment saying Shehbaz’s counsel Amjad Pervez was not available due to health reasons.

The judge allowed the request and adjourned the hearing till March 10 for the replies to the prosecution’s applications. The judge also sought arguments on the application against the jurisdiction of the court filed by suspect Muhammad Usman.

The FIA had booked Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman in November 2020 under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34 and 109 — financial fraud, impersonation and forgery – of the PPC and 5(2) and 5(3) — criminal misconduct – of Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of Anti Money Laundering Act. Suleman is absconding in the United Kingdom.

The challan submitted by the FIA comprises 66 pages along with seven additional volumes comprising 4,370 pages of documentary evidence.

The FIA nominated Shehbaz and his sons — Hamza and Suleman — as the principal accused in the case.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2022