Tag: Suleman Sharif

  • IHC grants 14-day protective bail to PM’s son Suleman Shehbaz

    IHC grants 14-day protective bail to PM’s son Suleman Shehbaz

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday granted protective bail to Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif’s son Suleman for 14 days in a money laundering case registered against him by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

    Last week, the IHC had barred authorities from arresting Suleman in the assets-beyond-means reference while hearing his petition for protective bail that would enable him to surrender before a trial court.

    Earlier today, Suleman appeared before a single-member bench of IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq for bail in the money laundering case.

    Amjad Pervez, Suleman’s lawyer, told the IHC CJ that his client has to appear before a special judge central in Lahore.

    After this, Justice Farooq granted protective bail to the PM’s son and directed him to appear before the relevant court within 14 days.

    Addressing the media after the hearing, Suleman addressing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, said, “The time of accountability is here; we will not spare him. We will not give him any space now; he will be punished.”

    Asked about Farah Khan, a friend of Imran Khan’s wife who allegedly sold the watches gifted to Khan, Suleman wondered why did she run away from Pakistan.

    “You are crying that Farah Gogi is not a public office holder. I was not a public office holder either,” said Suleman. He added that PTI chairman, while he was in power, did not even think about women and instantly arrested them.

    “You had the power, you could have proven the cases,” said Suleman.

    The PM’s son also slammed former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Javed Iqbal, saying that he was a “black stain” on the accountability system.

  • IHC orders Suleman Shehbaz to surrender; bars authorities from arrest

    IHC orders Suleman Shehbaz to surrender; bars authorities from arrest

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday has ordered Suleman Shehbaz, son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to surrender before it on December 13 and barred authorities from arresting him till then.

    The court has also asked authorities not to arrest the petitioner at the airport. The orders were given by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq while hearing a plea filed by the prime minister’s son for protective bail.

    During the hearing, Suleman’s lawyer Amjad Pervez told the court that his client is abroad since October 2018 while all cases against him were registered after that.

    However, the court informed the lawyer that it cannot grant bail in absence of the petitioner.

    Suleman Shehbaz is set to return to Pakistan after ending his self-exile of over four years in the British capital, London.

  • Suleman Shehbaz’s legal team sends Rs1bn defamatory notice to PTI’s Imran Ismail

    Suleman Shehbaz’s legal team sends Rs1bn defamatory notice to PTI’s Imran Ismail

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif’s son, Suleman Shehbaz, served a defamation notice worth Rs1 billion to former Sindh Governor Imran Ismail for alleging that he owned a solar panel business and was taking undue benefits from the government, reports Geo News.

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Ismail alleged in his tweets on July 3 that instead of strengthening ties with Turkey during his visit last month, PM Shehbaz had signed solar energy contracts with Ankara, which would benefit Suleman.

    The legal counsel of Suleman warned Ismail that if he does not fulfill the requirements within 14 days of receiving this notice, then legal action will be taken against Ismail.

    In response, Ismail said he welcomed the notice but asked in what capacity the PM’s son had sent him the notice.

    “The person who is a fugitive has sent me a notice. I stand by my claim of solar panels. The Sharif family is a business mafia, which uses the country for its businesses.”

  • CM Punjab Hamza owns over Rs410 million assets: ECP report

    CM Punjab Hamza owns over Rs410 million assets: ECP report

    The Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) has revealed the details of assets held by lawmakers of the Punjab Assembly.

    Hamza Shehbaz

    The ECP reported that Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Hamza Shehbaz owns assets worth more than Rs410 million, out of which Rs130 million is attributed to 11 houses that the CM owns.  He also owns 3 agricultural properties that are valued at Rs30 million with another 2 gifted to him by his brother, Suleman Shehbaz.

    The CM’s first wife Mehrunnisah owns assets worth Rs3.5 million while his other wife, Rabia owns assets worth Rs37.5 million. Hamza, according to the documents submitted to ECP, is also in debt of nearly Rs100 million.

    Sardar Usman Buzdar

    The former chief minister of Punjab, Sardar Usman Buzdar, has over a dozen properties to his name valued at Rs35 million reports the ECP. He is also the owner of 3 tractors and 2 cars, one that was passed down from his father.

    Aleem Khan

    Ex-provincial minister Aleem Khan has assets valued at over Rs700 million to his name.

    Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi

    The ECP reports that Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi owns assets worth over Rs200 million and non-agricultural land valued at over Rs60 million. According to the documents submitted to the ECP, Pervaiz Elahi owns a flour mill that was valued at Rs9.9 million while his wife holds assets worth Rs100 million.

  • Salman or Suleman: What is the real name of Shehbaz Sharif’s son?

    Salman or Suleman: What is the real name of Shehbaz Sharif’s son?

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif’s son who is in the limelight for accompanying his father on his official Turkey trip, got us all confused this morning. As the editor of the story sat to write the news story, she noticed that various newspapers had addressed Shehbaz’s son differently. Some had written that he is ‘Salman Shehbaz’ and some called him ‘Suleman’.

    Below are screenshots of the news stories.

    Newspaper The News called the premier’s son, “Salman”. The headline read, “(Money-laundering case)..Non-bailable arrest warrant issued for Salman.”

    Dawn, in a story published on September 28, 2021, while writing about the premier’s son wrote, “A UK court has ordered unfreezing of the bank accounts of PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif and his son Suleman Shehbaz after the country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) did not find evidence regarding ‘suspicious bank transactions’ against them.”

    Former Minister Ali Zaidi too seemed to not know and addressed him as Salman.

    The premier’s son’s Twitter handle cleared the confusion as his name there is “Suleman Sharif”

    We also spoke to someone close to the Prime Minister’s son who clarified that his name is indeed Suleman and not Salman.

  • ‘In what capacity did Shehbaz take his son to a state dinner?’ Twitterati question Suleman Shehbaz’s presence in Turkey

    ‘In what capacity did Shehbaz take his son to a state dinner?’ Twitterati question Suleman Shehbaz’s presence in Turkey

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif’s son Suleman Shehbaz has been in the limelight ever since his picture with President Tayyip Erdogan and the first lady from his father’s recent trip surfaced on the internet.

    Suleman Shehbaz, who has been accused of money laundering and assets beyond means, was present in Turkey, along with his father Shehbaz. His wife shared the picture of their dinner on Twitter which was heavily slammed by netizens.

    Twitterati questioned Suleman’s presence on an official trip.

    https://twitter.com/rabiaisrar38/status/1532374495306076161?s=20&t=AqOHY81s9F53RgIcK62vmQ

    Shehbaz’s three-day visit to Turkey too gathered criticism and was deemed that the duration and timing of the trip is rather unnecessary.

    The government before leaving gave ads of the trip to various newspapers. Twitterati questioned whether it was necessary to give ads

  • Shehbaz Sharif, son were focus of UK’s money-laundering investigation

    Shehbaz Sharif, son were focus of UK’s money-laundering investigation

    The United Kingdom’s (UK) anti-corruption force National Crime Agency (NCA) told the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on December 19, 2019, that it needed Assets Freezing Orders (AFO’s) to initiate a high-profile investigation into former Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Suleman Sharif to “prove or disprove” their alleged involvement in money-laundering, fraud, corrupt practices and misuse of public office for the purposes of money-laundering, reports Murtaza Ali Shah for The News.

    It was reported in November last year that the NCA has ended a major money-laundering investigation into Shehbaz Sharif and his son Suleman without any further action and unfreezing of the assets after finding no evidence of criminal conduct, money-laundering and abuse of public office. It was then claimed by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s adviser on accountability Shehzad Akbar that Shehbaz Sharif was not part of the investigation because his name was not part of the Order that set aside the AFO’s.

    The NCA told the court: “This application is in respect of funds held in the name of or associated to, Suleman Shahbaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif (officer note: frequently referred to as Shehbaz Sharif/Shahbaz Sharif).”

    The NCA said it suspected that the money that was transferred to Carter Ruck’s account was “in fact deemed to be associated to Suleman Sharif”. After the court granted AFO’s to NCA, further steps were taken to seek access to Shehbaz Sharif’s accounts at Barclays Bank and Habib Bank’s London branch as part of the “Frozen Funds” investigation.

    The NCA officer told the court it suspected that “the funds which are intended to be frozen are derived from this criminal conduct in Pakistan, namely accrued from the Sharif Group or by Shehbaz Sharif during his time as Chief Minister of Punjab. I suspect that this represents an active attempt by Shehbaz Sharif and Suleman Sharif to launder the proceeds of their criminality into the UK”.

    In introducing to the court who Shehbaz Sharif and Suleman Sharif were and why it intended to investigate them for the alleged criminal conduct of money-laundering, the NCA explained to the judge that Shehbaz Sharif is a “Politically Exposed Person (PEP) and has held a series of political appointments in Pakistan from the early 90s onwards, including president of the PML-N, Chief Minister of Punjab, and leader of the opposition provincial assembly of the Punjab”.

    It’s pertinent to mention that the NCA relied heavily on Daily Mail’s article by David Rose dated July 14, 2019, which he had published after visiting Pakistan for several days where he was given access to detainees who allegedly did money-laundering for the Sharifs.

    David Rose had claimed: “Britain’s National Crime Agency is working closely with Pakistani investigators and Home Secretary Sajid Javid is discussing the possible extradition of members of Shahbaz’s family who have taken refuge in London.”

    Shehzad Akbar had confirmed to David Rose in the same article: “We are working closely with the National Crime Agency and the Home Office. We are grateful for this assistance and we hope it will ensure that theft and money-laundering of this magnitude will never happen again.” The NCA told the court: “The Assets Recovery Unit  (ARU) was created by PM Imran Khan to assist in the recovery of criminal assets to the state of Pakistan. This letter has confirmed that Shehbaz Sharif is currently under investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s autonomous federal and anti-corruption agency, and was granted bail by the Accountability Court on February 14, 2019.”

    The NCA informing the court why it’s working with the ARU on these cases, said: “The ARU was created by PM Imran Khan under the leadership of his accountability advisor, a barrier and member of the Pakistan cabinet. The ARU was created to break down inter-agency barriers, combine in one pace the discrete powers of the federal agencies; and, prioritise asset recovery in the interests of the govt of Pakistan. The unit is formed of representatives from the NAB, FIA, FBR, and the State Bank of Pakistan.”

    The NCA investigation continued into Shehbaz Sharif for almost two years as the NCA went back nearly 15 years to investigate Shehbaz Sharif’s accounts and financial affairs and found no evidence of criminal conduct or fraud. The investigation was shut down in November 2021 after the NCA failed to establish that Shehbaz Sharif and his family were involved in any kind of wrongdoing, effectively giving Shehbaz Sharif a clean chit.

  • British court orders unfreezing of Shehbaz Sharif, son’s UK bank accounts

    British court orders unfreezing of Shehbaz Sharif, son’s UK bank accounts

    A United Kingdom (UK) court has ordered to unfreeze Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his family’s bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering, reported Geo News.

    The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) unfroze the bank accounts of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and those of his son, Suleman Shehbaz, on Monday.

    The NCA had conducted a 17-month long probe in which it examined Shehbaz Sharif’s financial transactions over the past 20 years. It said that no evidence of money laundering or criminal activities against the PML-N president or his family was found.

    The UK’s top anti-corruption agency filed a unilateral application before Judge Rimmer to declare that its two-year high-profile investigation in the jurisdictions of Pakistan, UK, and Dubai found no evidence of money laundering and criminal conduct on part of the two Sharifs who were investigated. 

    The NCA had initiated the probe after Pakistan’s Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) had shared evidence with the UK crime agency.

    After the Westminster Magistrates Court allowed the accounts to be frozen and issued a probe consent to the NCA on December 19, 2019, Suleman Shehbaz’s declared Barclays account, Shehbaz Sharif’s HBL UK and Barclays account were immediately probed, seized and monies were frozen.

    Usually, anti-money laundering investigations go back only six years, but in this case, the NCA used its excessive powers and investigated Shehbaz Sharif and his son’s transactions dating back to around 20 years.

    NCA’s investigators started the probe from the first flat that Shehbaz Sharif bought in 2004 on Edgware Road when he was in exile and asked him to produce evidence of the clean origin of the money, including mortgage payments, sources of proceeds in his accounts, salaries and dividends, and full proceeds of the property purchase in the UK bought during exile.

    The NCA investigated Suleman Shehbaz’s Barclays account declared in Pakistan with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and looked into all transfers that were made from Pakistan after the State Bank of Pakistan’s approval. The NCA went through each receipt of transfers from the official money exchangers.

    The court documents obtained by this correspondent from credible sources show that the NCA received a letter from the ARU on December 11, 2019, in which it levelled allegations of criminal conduct against Shehbaz Sharif and Suleman Shehbaz.

    The government of Pakistan had requested the UK government to seize all assets and funds of Shehbaz Sharif and his family and asked them to return the same to Pakistan and extradite Suleman Shehbaz with his family.

    Advisor to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said that reports of Shehbaz Sharif being acquitted by the British court were incorrect, clarifying that neither had the ARU nor NAB requested the UK government to initiate a probe against the PML-N leader.

    “[These transactions] were declared as a suspicious transaction by the UK authorities and the NCA secured an asset freezing order(AFO) from the court against these funds,” he tweeted.

    “The news about the alleged acquittal of Shehbaz Sharif or his son Suleman run by one news channel is incorrect and misreporting. It was a result of a suspicious transaction reported by a bank to NCA. The investigation by the NCA against Suleman Shehbaz and some of his family members was not initiated at the request of Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) or National Accountability Bureau (NAB),” tweeted Akbar, who had been keeping a low profile for the last couple of months.

    PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said: “The UK court’s decision has unequivocally exonerated Shehbaz Sharif and his family of all malicious and vexatious claims of corruption and money laundering by Imran Khan. The NCA conducted a 21-month global investigation spanning across a 20-year timeframe whilst overcoming unprecedented jurisdictional challenges.”

    “Never in the history of Pakistan has such a public office-holder been subjected to global scrutiny and multi-jurisdictional probing. Imran Khan has been exposed as a charlatan, willing to malign and assassinate characters of honest public office-holders. False corruption narrative exposed as nothing more than a smokescreen and Imran Khan to be an unscrupulous ringmaster of a circus built on incompetence, deceit and stained by the indignation of the innocent and the poor,” she said.