ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Saturday confirmed pre-arrest bail for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son in a Rs16 billion ($80 million) money laundering case, local media reported.
Sharif and his son Hamza, who is chief minister of Punjab province, were booked by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in November 2020 under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Money Laundering Act.
They were set to be indicted in the case in a hearing on May 14 but it was delayed because the prime minister was in the UK and postponed his return to the country in order to visit the UAE to offer condolences over the death of its ailing president.
Both Sharif and Hamza appeared before the FIA special court in Lahore on Saturday.
“Announcing the verdict, which was reserved earlier in the day, the court confirmed the bail of PM Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz against the surety bond of Rs1 million each,” The News daily reported.
“The court directed the suspects to submit their surety bonds within one week.”
The Dawn daily quoted the prime minister as saying in court that he had appeared in several hearings related to the case but the FIA had failed to submit its investigation report because it wanted to “create a path for arrest.”
“The day of judgement will arrive but the FIA will not be able to prove even a rupee worth of corruption,” Sharif said.
Sharif became prime minister in April after his immediate predecessor, Imran Khan, was ousted in a no-confidence vote.
He is the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and the younger brother of PMLN-N supremo Nawaz Sharif — three-time prime minister who was barred by the Supreme Court in 2017 from holding public office and went abroad on medical bail after serving a few months of a 10-year jail corruption sentence.
The Sharifs have always said the cases against them are politically motivated and driven by now ex-PM Khan who won power in 2018 vowing to root out corruption among what he cast as a venal political elite.
