The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday granted bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shehbaz in Ramzan Sugar Mills case. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had arrested Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz on June 11 last year. A two-member bench of the LHC headed by Justice Mazahir Ali Naqvi resumed hearing into PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz’s bail application in Ramzan Sugar Mills case. “The case is related to the misuse of authority and public funds. A drainage system costing Rs200 million was built only to facilitate Ramzan Sugar Mills. Hamza was the director of the mills while Shehbaz Sharif was chief minister of Punjab at that time,” the prosecutor informed the court as the hearing resumed. “It looks like that NAB has not even bothered to touch the file of Ramzan Sugar Mills case. Can you tell us why the bureau had taken back its appeal against Shehbaz Sharif’s bail?” Justice Syed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi asked the NAB prosecutor when the latter failed to tell the court about names of other directors of the mills. “NAB prosecutor and the team must be given pride of performance on the level of the investigation conducted by them,” he remarked, while expressing displeasure over the investigation conducted by NAB in the case. On February 18, 2019, the NAB had filed a reference against Hamza and Shehbaz, alleging that the former chief minister Punjab had misused his authority to get a 10-km sludge carrier constructed in district Chiniot to facilitate Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by his sons. The bureau had alleged that the project had inflicted a loss of Rs 213 million to the national exchequer. On April 17, 2019, Hamza was granted pre-arrest bail by the LHC, which also restrained NAB from arresting him in cases pertaining to ownership of assets beyond means until further notice. Hamza was also directed to submit bail bonds worth Rs10 million at the time. The PML-N leader was then arrested by NAB from inside the LHC on June 11 in the Ramzan Sugar Mills and money laundering cases after the two-member bench rejected Hamza’s bail. The court will hear the bail petition in the separate money laundering case against Hamza on February 11.