LAHORE: An anti-corruption court on Tuesday sought arguments on a point whether it should start hearing of Ramzan Sugar Mills reference afresh or continue from where an accountability court left the matter.

Anti-Corruption Court Judge Sardar Iqbal Dogar conducted the first hearing of the sugar mills reference against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz and others.

On Oct 17, an accountability court transferred the case to the anti-corruption court due to lack of jurisdiction following amendments introduced in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

Judge Dogar asked Advocate Amjad Pervez, the counsel for PM Shehbaz and Hamza, to present his arguments on the law point whether the accused persons were supposed to be indicted once again before starting the trial proceedings.

The lawyer asked the court to first decide the acquittal applications filed by the accused persons.

However, he sought a short adjournment to prepare his detailed arguments.

The judge noted that due to the high number of cases, a short adjournment cannot be given.

The judge postponed the hearing till Dec 4, observing that the court must first decide whether it should restart the whole proceedings or continue from where the accountability court quit.

The reference was earlier returned to the NAB in 2022 after the accountability court lost its jurisdiction to further proceed with the matter as per an amendment in section 5 of the ordinance.

It was stated that the NAB, after the amendment, could not prosecute an alleged offence involving money less than Rs500 million and the offence amount in the reference against the suspects was below the minimum value.

The accountability court was informed that the NAB in its reference made a case of alleged corruption of Rs213m.

Later, the Supreme Court had suspended the amendments leading to reopening of the reference by the NAB.

However, the apex court reversed its decision and restored the amendments in September leading to transfer of the mills reference to the Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE).

The NAB reference filed in 2018 alleged that PM Shehbaz being chief minister and his son Hamza with the abetment and connivance of each other caused a loss to national exchequer of Rs213m by committing the offence of misuse of authority.

It said Mr Shehbaz had issued a directive for the construction of a drain in Chiniot district primarily for the use of Ramzan Sugar Mills owned by his sons- Hamza and Suleman.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024