The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday granted protective bail to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif son-in-law Haroon Yousaf Aziz. A two-member bench of the IHC, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, heard a petition filed by Aziz counsel in the assets beyond means case. It may be noted that Aziz was amongst several other accused alongside PM Shehbaz standing trial in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference of money laundering involving a sum of over Rs7 billion. Apart from Shehbaz, NAB had nominated his wife Nusrat Shehbaz, sons Hamza Shahbaz and Suleman Shahbaz, daughters Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali, his son- in-law Haroon Yousaf Aziz as benamidars and two employees of the then chief minister’s secretariat Nisar Ahmad and Ali Ahmad Khan and an employee of Ramzan Sugar Mills Limited, Syed Tahir Naqvi as their front persons.

“During the years 2008 to 2018, a huge, multifold and disproportionate increase in the assets of the accused namely Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and his co- accused family members, to the tune of Rs6,122 million (present value of the assets Rs7,328 million) was witnessed when he was the chief minister of Punjab,without corresponding the known and proportionate sources of income,” the reference had read. The anti-corruption watchdog had further stated that Shehbaz had acquired huge valuable assets in his own name and in the name of his family members through “fake, unexplained, unjustified sources and other channels of money laundering, including bogus telegraphic transfers, foreign remittances, fake loans, unexplained gifts from his own employees, close relatives and private persons”.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP