LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of Ramzan Sugar Mills case till August 9.
Duty Judge Muhammad Waseem Akhtar conducted the proceedings wherein opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz was produced on the expiry of his judicial remand.
Opposition Leader in National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel, in response to a court query, submitted that his client was busy in Islamabad in connection with a Senate session.
He pleaded the court to accept Shehbaz’s exemption application for Thursday.
With the permission of the court, Hamza also spoke in his defence and submitted that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had levelled corruption allegations against him and now it should also prove those allegations. He submitted that if allegations were proved against him, he would apologise from the court and the nation.
Subsequently, the court adjourned further proceedings till August 9 while extending Hamza’s judicial remand and accepting his father’s exemption application.
NAB has alleged that Shehbaz, then chief minister of Punjab, approved the construction of a drain in Chiniot at the cost of Rs360 million only to benefit Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by his sons Hamza and Salman.
The bureau said that the approval of the construction was given on a fake application filed by the then MPA Maulana Rehmatullah, showing the drain as a public project and public funds were misused for the benefit of the Sharif’s family business.