Pakistan investigation agency seeks arrest of PM, son

Islamabad: Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency on Saturday sought the arrest of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son and Punjab province Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz in a 16 billion Pakistani rupees money laundering case.

The FIA has told the Special Court (Central-I) that the agency wanted to arrest PM Sharif and Hamza in the Rs16 billion money laundering case filed against the father and son duo, according to Geo News.During Saturday's hearing, the agency's lawyer said that they were "not part of the investigation".

However, Hamza's lawyer refuted the claims and accused the FIA of misleading the court.
The FIA has been investigating for the last one-and-a-half year and it has been unable to produce any evidence against them, the counsel of the both Pakistan Muslim League (N) leaders said during his argument.

The counsel also highlighted that the FIA interrogated them when they were in prison.
In December 2021, the agency had filed a ''challan'' against Shehbaz and Hamza in the court for allegedly involved in laundering of 16 billion rupees in the sugar scam case, according to Geo News.

The team has "detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions," according to the FIA's report.The interim bail of PM Shehbaz and Hamza was extended by the court till June 4 on the last hearing.(UNI)