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A Lahore special court central judge on Saturday expressed his displeasure over the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) conduct in preparing an improper arrest warrant for Salman Shehbaz.
The court has initiated proceedings to declare Salman a proclaimed offender in the money laundering case.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz and other accused were present in the courtroom during the proceedings. They are accused in the Rs16 billion money laundering case.
During previous hearings, the judge, on the request of the FIA, had initiated proceedings to declare three accused including Salman as proclaimed offenders in the case.
In the hearing today, the judge asked about the status of Salman’s arrest warrants.
“Who prepared this arrest warrant? The name of Salman’s father has not been mentioned here,” the judge asked.
The judge also pointed out to the FIA prosecutor, Farooq Bajwa, that the report prepared by the agency regarding the arrest of the premier’s son and the other two suspects had a lot of contradictions.
The judge said that on one hand, the report states that D-41 Model Town does not exist as an address and on the other hand it states that the accused is not in the country. To this, FIA’s prosecutor informed the court that the address does exist but the suspect could not be found at the said location.
The judge remarked that the report had also failed to mention other routine details on Salman and another accused as well.
Read More: Court unable to indict Shehbaz, Hamza in money laundering case
“FIA will again issue the arrest warrant and submit a fresh report. There are lacunas in the report prepared by the FIA,” the prosecutor said.
During proceedings, PM Shehbaz said that his family’s sugar business suffered a lot from his decisions as CM and reiterated that he had not even withdrawn his salary of public office in more than 12 years as Punjab’s chief executive.
“God made me the PM of this country. I have not taken any benefit,” he added and recalled that during his tenure as CM, the provincial secretary had sent a summary to him for exporting sugar, which he rejected while limiting the commodity’s export.
“My family lost over Rs2 billion due to my decisions. They lost Rs800 million annually because of it.”
“I proposed a subsidy of Rs15 at that time. My decisions were actually in favour of Pakistan but not in favour of my family. Please do not not consider my words in the sense that I am praising myself,” the PM further said.
The accused’s counsel argued that there was no concrete evidence which could prove the guilt of his clients. The counsel further prayed that this case was a “tale” and politically motivated.
“The defendants did not even know whether the prosecution witnesses’ statements in the case were true,” he added. “The witnesses do not say these accounts belonged to Shehbaz Sharif. Mushtaq Cheeni also opened accounts but no FIR was registered against him. The proceedings are still in progress
