LAHORE, May 5: A Pakistani court has declared the daughter of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and her husband “innocent” and absolved them of all charges in a mega corruption and money laundering case in just “one hearing”.
The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) told the Anti-Corruption Court on Monday that PM’s daughter Rabia Imran and her husband Ali Imran Yousaf are not found involved in the Punjab Saaf Pani Company corruption and money laundering case as no evidence is available against them.
Last week, an accountability court suspended the perpetual arrest warrants issued against the couple in the multi-billion-dollar corruption case.
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The accountability court had issued perpetual warrants for their arrest in 2022 during the tenure of the Imran Khan government.
Rabia and her husband fled to the UK in 2022 to evade arrest, and the court subsequently declared them proclaimed offenders.
An official said that the court absolved the couple of all corruption and money laundering charges in the first hearing of the case on the report of the ACE.
Rabia and her husband returned to the country from the UK a couple of weeks ago after the court granted them bail.
PM Shehbaz was also named in this corruption case, but he was acquitted due to the lack of evidence.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party has alleged that the acquittal of PM Shehbaz and other ruling coalition members in various corruption cases is the result of a “compromised judiciary” and a “NAB-PMLN nexus”, referring to a perceived alliance between the National Accountability Bureau and the military-backed government.
The party termed these acquittals as the “demise of justice” and accused the judiciary of acting as a “silent accomplice” to state-backed political terrorism.
Three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of the ruling PMLN was also acquitted in corruption cases, including the one — Al-Azizia — for which he was undergoing seven-year imprisonment in Lahore jail.
Imran Khan was ousted from power in April 2022 through a no-confidence motion. Subsequently, he was arrested in August 2023 and has been in jail in multiple cases since then. (PTI)
