LAHORE: Suleman Shehbaz, son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was granted on Friday interim pre-arrest bail in two separate cases of money laun-dering and accumulating assets beyond known sources of income till January 7.
Suleman, who returned to Pakistan earlier this month after four years of self-exile in London, is an accused in a money laundering case registered with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) while the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has nominated him in an assets-beyond-means reference.
He has been declared a proclaimed offender in both cases. Prior to his return, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had restrained the NAB and FIA from arresting him.
The IHC order was issued on Suleman’s plea seeking protective bail for him to be able to surrender before a trial court and avoid arrest. He was eventually granted 14-day protective bail on December 13.
He was granted interim bail in the two cases yesterday after he surrendered before an accountability court and a special court in Lahore and filed bail pleas. His plea for interim bail in the NAB case was moved by his lawyer, Amjad Pervaiz, before an accountability court yesterday after his surrender. Subsequently, the court barred the NAB from arresting Suleman till January 7 and directed that he be included in the investigation.
The court then granted him interim-pre-arrest bail, seeking his national identity card from him and a reply on his plea from the NAB at the next hear-ing. The bail was approved against surety bonds worth Rs500,000.
Earlier, Suleman also moved a special court in Lahore for pre-arrest bail in the Rs16bn million money laundering case after he surrendered before it. The plea for his pre-arrest bail in this case was also moved by his counsel, Pervaiz, before the special court (central).
Subsequently, the court barred the FIA from arresting Suleman till January 7 and directed that he be included in the investigation. The bail was granted against surety bonds worth Rs100,000. –Agencies
