Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Friday cleared Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif of all charges pertaining to a money laundering case filed 14 years ago.
During a hearing presided over by Justice Anwar Ahmed at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court, the Sharif brothers were acquitted of all corruption charges, including possession of illegal assets, Dawn online reported.
Justice Ahmad said the cases were pending for 14 years and not a single witness appeared in court.
Terming the charges against the Sharif family as politically motivated, the court said they had no factual basis.
In 2000, the Pervez Musharraf-led government prepared a money laundering case against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif.
According to the case files, the Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as a cover for money laundering during the late 1990s.
The ruling comes at a favourable time when the embattled Nawaz Sharif is struggling to hold his own with the protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) demanding his resignation and calling his government the outcome of a rigged election.
Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday decided to start ex-parte proceedings against 61 politicians, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari, in a case against alleged illegal transfer of assets to foreign countries.
A petition filed said that prominent politicians, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and former president Asif Ali Zardari, had transferred their assets to foreign countries via illegal means, Dawn online reported.
The petition requested the court to issue orders to bring the allegedly illegally transferred assets back to Pakistan.
The order disables the politicians, who failed to submit their affidavits in response to the court’s directive to declare their assets, from defending themselves and will affect high-profile politicians including the prime minister, the Punjab chief minister, Imran Khan and Zardari.
In June, the Lahore High Court had issued notices to the politicians, including the prime minister, on a petition seeking directions to the politicians to bring their foreign assets back to Pakistan.
On September 2, only three of those 64 initially directed had filed affidavits in this regard.
The case has been adjourned to September 29.
