Court extends Shehbaz’s detention in money laundering case

An accountability court in Lahore on Thursday extended the judicial remand (detention) of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and National Assembly (NA) Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif in a money laundering case. During the proceedings, the judge served a show-cause notice on Kot Lakhpat prison’s deputy superintendent for failing to produce Sharif in time. “A traffic line disturbed the schedule”, the official said. “Try to leave earlier if there is a traffic jam issue en route to the court,” the judge said. Medical reports of Sharif were also presented before the court. Later, the court extended Shehbaz’s judicial remand before adjourning the hearing until March 10. The reference mainly accuses Shehbaz of being a beneficiary of assets held in the name of his family members and frontmen, who had no sources to acquire such assets. It said the family members and frontmen of the Shehbaz family received fake foreign remittances of 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 the personal bank accounts of Hamza and Suleman. The reference further said that the family of Shehbaz failed to justify the sources of funds used for the acquisition of assets. It said the suspects committed offenses of corruption and corrupt practices as envisaged under the provisions of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and money laundering as delineated in the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010. It asked the trial court to try the suspects and punish them under the law.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari on Thursday said that the Senate elections have been a decisive win for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government that has emerged as the single largest party in a hung upper house. In a series of tweets, Mazari said that Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to take a confidence vote from the National Assembly “despite the fact that same house […] voted by a large margin to elect PTI’s Fauzia Arshad” from Islamabad who defeated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) hopeful Farzana Kausar. “Certainly loss of Shaikh a setback but fact is PTI has become [a] largest single party in Senate,” she pointed out. Talking about the PML-N, the minister said the opposition party’s “sparse showing” in the elections should be a “sombre message” for it. “PDM chief MFR’s [Maulana Fazlur Rehman] brother lost his seat too! Overall Senate elections have been a decisive win for PTI & defeat for the motley collection of money-showering PDM parties!” “Interesting how PMLN & PPP still remain provincial parties as reflected in Senate elections! Btw those saying “if u think PTI won Senate elections”, it’s not a matter of “thinking” – numbers are there so chk results to see that PTI has emerged as [the] largest single party in Senate!”