Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son former chief minister Punjab Hamza Shehbaz filed acquittal pleas in the money laundering case on Wednesday. In the plea, submitted to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Special Central Court Lahore, the PM and Hamza have stated that the FIA created the case for political revenge. Thus, the case should be dismissed. Lawyers of both the petitioners argued that their company accounts have also been frozen on the order of the court, and further requested the court to pass an order to unfreeze them.
To this the FIA’s lawyer stated that the agency has no objection to unfreezing the accounts of the companies. The court directed the FIA to respond to the acquittal pleas by September 17. During Wednesday’s proceedings, Hamza appeared before the court while a request seeking immunity from appearance for today’s hearing was made on behalf of the prime minister. The premier’s lawyer, Amjad Pervaiz, argued that the premier could not appear in the court due to him visiting flood-affected areas. While accepting the request for absence, the court inquired, “Can’t he [PM Shehbaz] appear in the court for 10 minutes? This case has been scheduled after a month. It is not ongoing on a daily basis.”