Ramzan Sugar Mills: Court to announce verdict on Feb 6

LAHORE: An anti-corruption court in Lahore will announce its verdict on acquittal pleas filed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shabaz in the Ramzan sugar mills case on February 6.

The development comes as Anti-Corruption Court Judge Sardar Iqbal Dogar heard the case concerning alleged misuse of authority by PM Shehbaz during his tenure as Punjab's chief minister by using public funds for the construction of a sludge carrier to facilitate the Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by his sons.

In its reference filed on February 18, 2019, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had accused Shehbaz, then CM, of getting a 10-kilometre sludge carrier constructed in district Chiniot to facilitate the facility.

The anti-corruption bureau had alleged that the "project" had inflicted a loss of Rs213 million to the national exchequer.

The reference was reopened in November 2023 after the amendments — introduced by the coalition government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — were struck down.

The premier, along with his son Hamza Shahbaz were indicted in the said case in 2019 and had then applied for transfer of the reference in September 2024 following the Supreme Court's decision to restore amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

This was followed by the transfer of the case from the accountability court to an anti-corruption court in October 2024, as the NAB could not prosecute alleged offences involving amounts less than Rs500 million.

During the case's hearing, PM Shehbaz and Hamza's lawyer Amjad Pervez argued that the complainant had confessed that the said sludge carrier was not constructed to only cater to the Ramzan Sugar Mills but instead was meant for the local area generally.

Noting that the complainant admitted to not accusing PM Shehbaz and Hamza of corruption in the first place, the counsel maintained that the complainant had apprised the NAB during the inquiry that he was not the complainant to begin with.

It is to be noted that PM Shehbaz and 10 others were acquitted by an accountability court in Lahore in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference in November 2023.

The acquittal came after the NAB informed the court that it had found no evidence of financial corruption or misuse of authority by Shehbaz and stated and stated that the allegations of misuse of authority and corruption against the former prime minister were not substantiated under the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999.

The premier and former chief minister, in the 2018 reference, was accused of causing massive financial loss to the national kitty by awarding the contract to a construction firm without a competitive bidding process.