LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday decided that bail petition of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shehbaz Sharif would be heard on a daily basis.
A two-judge bench was hearing the bail petition filed by the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly (NA).
During the course of the hearing, Shehbaz’s counsel apprised the court that his client has been nominated in the Paragon Housing City scam case despite the fact that he has no direct or indirect role in the matter.
“There are no statements against Shehbaz in the reference, yet he has been on physical remand for 50 days. Even terrorists are not even sent on remand for this long. And on the other hand, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is not even submitting a reply,” the counsel added.
Justice Malik Shehzad expressed his annoyance at NAB’s counsel for the unprofessional attitude, in response to which the latter sought more time to submit a reply and requested the bench to adjourn the hearing for a week.
“You have filed a reference and now your comments are not needed,” the judge replied as he rejected the request made by NAB’s counsel while adding that Shehbaz’s bail plea would be heard on a daily basis.
“Seven months have passed and we will not allow further delay,” he added.
He then acknowledged Shehbaz’s counsel. “The accusation is that the contract was cancelled to benefit Paragon company,” he said.
“This is only an allegation and not true. Nothing illegal was done,” Shehbaz’s counsel replied while adding that the case’s inquiry began on January 10 and the PML-N leader was summoned on January 22. The investigative report released on May 7 did not mention that Shehbaz was involved,” the counsel added.
The judge then inquired about Shehbaz’s relationship with the Paragon company to which the concerned’s counsel responded by denying the existence of any such relationship.
“My client has nothing to do with Paragon and NAB has levelled several allegations against him,” he stated.
The hearing was adjourned till February 6, whereas Justice Malik Shehzad ordered NAB special prosecutor Akram Qureshi to submit a reply.