ISLAMABAD: Suleman Shahbaz, one of the two sons of the prime minister, returned home Sunday after four years in London in self-imposed exile to face investigation in a money laundering case which began in 2018.
Shahbaz reached Islamabad early Sunday and then took a flight to his hometown of Lahore after meeting with his father, Shahbaz Sharif, at the prime minister’s residence, said Attaullah Tarar, a spokesman for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
The Twitter account of the party shared a video of the absconding son of the prime minister returning home and meeting Sharif deferentially before giving him a hug. Sharif is also seen putting a garland on his son in the video.
وزیراعظم شہباز شریف کے صاحبزادے سلمان شہباز وطن واپس پہنچ گئے pic.twitter.com/YarK6bZvjd
— PML(N) (@pmln_org) December 10, 2022
Since 2018, Shahbaz had been residing in the British capital with his family apparently to escape multiple corruption and financial embezzlement investigations launched against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ahead of that year’s general elections.
He was declared proclaimed offender the following year after he refused to appear before the dirty money watchdog in the Rs16 billion scandal involving members of his family, including Sharif, despite repeated summons, and issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him.
Following his designation as an offender, the watchdog agency made repeated attempts to bring him back but remained unsuccessful for one reason or the other.
Last week, Shahbaz’s lawyers obtained protective bail for him from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that will be in effect until Tuesday. It bars Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from arresting him until then so that he can surrender before the accountability court.
The reference mainly accused Sharif of being a beneficiary of assets held in the name of his family members and benamidars, who had no sources to acquire such assets.
It said the members and benamidars of his family received fake foreign remittances of billions in their personal bank accounts. In addition to these remittances, the bureau said, billions of rupees were laundered by way of foreign pay orders, which were deposited in the personal bank accounts of Sharif’s two sons.
The reference further said the Sharif family failed to justify the sources of funds used for the acquisition of assets.
It said the suspects committed offences of corruption and corrupt practices as envisaged under the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and money laundering as delineated in the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
The agency also asked the trial court to try the suspects and punish them under the law.
Sharif and his other son, Hamza Shahbaz, were acquitted of the charges by a court in October but Shahbaz could not be tried after he fled to London.
— With input from AP
