LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday approved the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) request for a seven-day remand of Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif.
The PML-N president appeared before the accountability court where Judge Syed Najmul Hassan was hearing NAB’s request.
Insisting that he had not committed any corruption, Shahbaz told the court that NAB had not achieved anything from all the physical remands granted so far.
The NAB prosecutor objected, saying that today the merit of the case was not being discussed — only the request for the transit remand.
Shahbaz told the court that his family was not given permission to meet him this week despite the court giving an order.
“I told NAB that meeting [them] is my right, it is not some favour. But NAB did not let me meet my family,” he said.
NAB prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua in response implied that no one had come to meet Shahbaz.
The court ordered the director general (DG) NAB to allow Shahbaz to meet his family according to the law and added that a meeting should be arranged once a week.
The court also ordered that Shahbaz’s medical check up be conducted.
This is the third time NAB requested Shahbaz’s transit remand. On November 10, Shahbaz’s physical remand was extended until Nov 24. Earlier, on November 6, an accountability court in Islamabad had extended his transit remand until Nov 10.
During the hearing today, the NAB prosecutor asked for a seven-day transit remand of the PML-N president, which was approved.
Janjua said that the speaker of the National Assembly had issued production orders for Shahbaz and added that his physical remand was ending on Nov 24.
The PML-N president’s lawyer said that NAB should be given transit remand of Shahbaz till Nov 24, adding that a seven-day transit remand was not required.
The lawyer said that when Shahbaz’s physical remand ends, he will be presented in the Islamabad accountability court.
Janjua said that if the NA session ends before Nov 24, Shahbaz should be presented in Lahore.
The court inquired how long the session was, to which Shahbaz responded, “I have neither a newspaper nor a TV, I don’t know”.
