FIA charges against Shehbaz, Hamza in Rs16bn graft case

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted the challan against PMLN president Shehbaz Sharif and son Hamza Shehbaz to a special court on Monday for their alleged involvement in laundering an amount of Rs16 billion in the sugar scam case. In another development, the agency claimed it had unearthed the role of a Bahraini woman in the saga at the behest of former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

“The investigation team has detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions,” according to an FIA report.

The amount was kept in “hidden accounts” and given to Shehbaz in a personal capacity, the report added. This amount (Rs16bn) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of Shehbaz family).The money received from the accounts of low-wage employees by Shehbaz was transferred outside Pakistan via hundi/hawala networks, ultimately destined for beneficial use of his family members, the FIA alleged.

The report further said that in 1998 Sadiqa Syed, a Barhrain national, had helped Shehbaz Sharif (then chief minister of Punjab) in laundering $5 million with the help of Ishaq Dar (then federal finance minister). The FIA has nominated Shehbaz Sharif and his sons — Hamza and Suleman — as the principal accused in the case. Fourteen others have been named in the FIR under sections 5(2) and 5(3) (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, read with 3/4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. “Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who ‘held and possessed’ the laundered proceeds on behalf of the principal accused, are found guilty of facilitating money laundering. The three other co-accused of the Sharif group also actively facilitated the money laundering,” the agency said.

The benami accounts, which had deposits totalling Rs16.3bn, were not declared by the principal accused, according to the FIA. “The onus of proving pecuniary resources disproportionate to known sources of income and acquired ostensibly through improper means, lies on public servants,” it said.