LAHORE: Suleman Shehbaz, son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was granted a bail extension in the money laundering case by the special court on Saturday.
Suleman Shehbaz appeared in court on January 7 after his bail expired. Shehbaz was granted bail till January 21 by the judge after his lawyer assured client’s full cooperation with the court. Furthermore, the court directed the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) investigation officer to submit the investigation report at the next hearing. Previously, PM Son was granted bail until January 7th in exchange for Rs 500, 000 in surety bonds.
In his plea filed, Suleman claimed that he was arrested without a legitimate reason. He added that he claimed that he was labelled a “proclaimed offender” in the case without his knowledge and that he received no orders from the court. He further contended that the legal requirements for declaring a suspect a proclaimed criminal were not met in his situation. However, he asked the court for interim bail in the case.
Suleman surrendered to the Islamabad High Court in December after returning to Pakistan after four years of self-exile. IHC granted a 14-day protective bail in the money-laundering case on December 13.
Prior to the cases filed against him in 2018 by NAB and FIA and his appearing in some hearings, Suleman left for London and was declared an absconder for not being able to appear in the court.
On December 7, he applied for protective bail in the Islamabad High Court. He added in his petition that, despite living in the UK since 2018, Shahbaz had never received notices from the FIA that filed a case against him. He said he left the country in 2018, and the cases were applied in 2020. Hence, the court should grant a protective bail.
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