LAHORE: On Wednesday, an accountability court postponed making a decision over the bail request submitted by Shehbaz Sharif, the former prime minister, and other defendants in the Ashiana Housing Society case. On November 7, the decision is expected to be made public.
The interim prime minister’s special advisor, Ahad Khan Cheema, was granted a one-day exemption from attendance by the court.
Malik Ali Zulqarnain, the judge, chaired the hearing.
NAB prosecutor Waris Janjua submitted his evidence during today’s hearing, saying that there was no way to prove the accused’s guilt based on the record that was available. He went on to say that he agreed with the probe report’s conclusions.
Former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Cheema had requested a one-day absence from the meeting, citing his official duties as the caretaker PM’s advisor and his need to be in Islamabad.
Charged During the bail application hearing, Munir Zia’s attorney argued that the NAB’s referral was motivated by malice. The lawyer further stated that the Ashiana case’s construction process was carried out in a transparent manner, asking the court to grant the bail request.
The judge had requested comments on the accused’s bail applications today during the prior hearing. During the last session, Amjad Pervaiz, the former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s attorney, said that the NAB cases against Shehbaz were politically driven. He also mentioned that the Supreme Court has previously addressed the topic of political engineering in one of its rulings.
Since the NAB lacked access to the full record, advocate Amjad declared that no accusations made against Shehbaz could be validated. Additionally, he contended that Fawad Hasan Fawad and Ahad Cheema were not the subject of any relevant evidence. denying the possibility that the accusations will be validated.
Two of the defendants, Nadeem Zia and Kamran Kiani, have already been found not guilty by the court, while Shehbaz has been given a perpetual pass to avoid appearing in court.
Shehbaz’s and the other accused parties’ attorneys have already concluded their arguments over the bail requests.
In addition to the former prime minister, additional defendants in the case include Ahad Cheema, Fawad Hasan Fawad, Bilal Kadwai, Imtiaz Haider, Israr Saeed, Arif Butt, and Shahid Shafiq, the chief executive of Bismillah Construction Company.
In the Ashiana case, the court had previously indicted ten defendants.
According to the reference, 16,000 people from low-income backgrounds contributed Rs 610 million to the housing project. On January 20, 2015, the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) entered into a contract. As a result of the companies’ inefficiency, the government suffered damages exceeding Rs645 million.
