LAHORE, January 14: The Banking Crime Court in Lahore hearing the money laundering and corporate fraud case against Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz has accepted FIA’s plea to transfer the case to another court. During the proceedings on Friday, the court also returned the case’s challan to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), directing the Agency to submit it in the relevant court. The court also approved the protective bail of PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz for seven days, directing both of them to now get bail from the relevant court within seven days. The FIA had filed an application to transfer the case to the central judge Special FIA Court. Earlier, the Banking Court reserved its verdict on the jurisdiction of the court to hear the money laundering case. The court also accepted Shehbaz’s request for exemption from appearance on Friday. Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shehbaz said on Friday everybody on Thursday witnessed how the government managed to get the Supplementary Finance Bill (mini budget) passed by the parliament. Speaking to the media outside an accountability court (AC), he said, “This was not a mini budget, but a death warrant for the masses.” “Now even the parties, part of the coalition government at Center, have fear in their minds that they will not be able to meet their constituents if they remained allies of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government,” he said. PML-N leader repeated the opposition’s allegation that ‘the selected’ Prime Minister Imran Khan had sold out the State Bank of Pakistan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “While on one hand, inflation in the country is all-time high, on the other hand, the PTI government is still in a ‘denial mode’,” he said, and added the country’s economy was on the verge of complete collapse. “Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has given nothing to the Punjab, but devastation,” Hamza said, adding it was strange that while petroleum products’ prices were expected to increase again in a day or two, the prime minister said, “All is well.” -NNI
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