LAHORE An accountability court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on acquittal applications of former prime minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and other accused in Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference.
Besides Shehbaz Sharif, the court reserved verdict on the acquittal applications of Ahad Cheema, the advisor to caretaker prime minister, Munir Zia, Imtiaz Haider, Bilal Qudwai, Sajjad Bhutta and Shahid Mehmood. The court observed that the reserved verdict would be announced on November 7.
Accountability Court Judge Ali Zulqarnain Awan reserved the verdict on completion of arguments by National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) prosecutor and the defence counsel.
During the proceedings, the NAB’s prosecutor argued before the court that as per record, the accused were not likely to be convicted. He further expressed accord with the findings of the investigation report.
On May 20, 2023, the NAB had submitted a report in which it told the court that no evidence of financial corruption or misuse of authority was
found against Shehbaz Sharif. It stated that the two offences against the former prime minister had not been proved under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
Former prime minister and other accused had filed applications under Section 265-K of the CrPC seeking acquittal in the reference. They had pleaded with the court to acquit them as no evidence was available to convict them.
It is pertinent to mention here that the court had already acquitted two accused, Nadeem Zia and Kamran Kiani, in the reference.
The NAB had alleged that Shehbaz and other accused persons caused a huge loss to the national exchequer by awarding the contract of the housing scheme to a company without bidding.