Pakistan court issues non-bailable arrest warrants for Shahbaz Sharif's wife, daughter

ISLAMABAD

: A Lahore-based accountability court on Tuesday granted Pakistan’s

anti-graft watchdog

, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), a 14-day physical remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly

Shahbaz

Sharif and issued non-bailable arrest warrants for his wife and daughter in a money laundering case.


The arrest warrants were issued after Sharif’s wife Nusrat Shahbaz and daughter Rabia Imran failed to appear for the hearing of the case. Meanwhile, the court accepted Sharif’s other daughter Javeria Ali’s petition for permanent exemption from court hearings.


Sharif, who was arrested by the anti-corruption body a day earlier, argued his case himself in the court. He denied any wrongdoing and alleged that a mockery was being made of the law. “This is the NAB-Niazi (PM Imran Khan) nexus in play,” he said.

Following the arguments, the court accepted NAB’s request to grant the accountability body two-week physical remand of Sharif. The judge ordered to present the PML-N president in the court again on October 13.

The case against Sharif is related to NAB’s December 2019 reference under which it had frozen 23 properties owned by him and his sons Hamza and Suleman over claims that they had acquired assets beyond their known sources of income and committed money-laundering.

According to NAB, an investigation had found that the PML-N president had acquired properties in the name of his wives Nusrat and Tehmina Durrani. PML-N denies the allegations, claiming that the anti-corruption body was merely trying to harass the opposition at the government’s behest.

Condemning Sharif’s arrest and arrest warrants for his wife and daughter, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the “selected government has crossed all limits... in political revenge”.

“Fascist and dictatorial tactics against political opponents will remain as a black stain on Mr Imran’s forehead,” she posted on Twitter.