Shahbaz Sharif granted bail in key graft cases
lahore — The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday approved Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif’s bail petitions in Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills corruption cases and ordered his release.
The decision was taken by a twomember LHC bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan.
Pakistan’s anti-graft watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau, had arrested the leader of the opposition on October 5, 2018, in connection to the multi-billion Ashiana Iqbal Housing case.
Shahbaz had been charged with misuse of authority during his tenure as Punjab province’s chief minister from 2013 to May 2018 by unlawfully assuming powers of the board of directors of the Punjab Land Development Company and awarding a contract to an ineligible proxy firm that resulted in the failure of the housing scheme.
The scam reportedly caused losses of millions of rupees to the national exchequer and deprived 61,000 applicants of houses.
In Ramzan Sugar Mills case, Shahbaz has been accused of using public funds to benefit the Mills, which belongs to his family.
He had denied all the charges against him as false and frivolous and his counsel had sought relief of bail on 30 grounds, including one on medical reasons. Shahbaz, who has been in the Kot Lakhpat jail Lahore, declared the verdict “a victory of truth”.
“False cases were instituted against me on political grounds.” He said if a corruption of a penny is proved against him, he will quit politics.
In both cases the NAB prosecutor failed to present evidence and witnesses in support of its claim of corruption against Shahbaz.
He served as the chief minister of the politically crucial Punjab province from 2013 to 2018. He became PML-N president after his elder brother Nawaz Sharif was barred from holding the top party position and public posts.
Nawaz is also serving a sevenyear imprisonment in Al Azizia Mills corruption case in the Kot Lakhpat jail.
He has filed a bail application in the Islamabad high court on medical grounds. Nawaz has heart related complications and the multidisciplinary medical board constituted by the government has recommended his care in a cardiac facility 24 hrs a day. —
The verdict is a victory of truth as false cases were instituted against me on political grounds. Shahbaz Sharif, PML-N president