LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday granted pre-arrest bail to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif till June 17 in the cases pertaining to money laundering and assets beyond means.

The LHC has stopped the accountability watchdog from arresting the Pakistan Muslim League-N leader and ordered him to furnish Rs0.5 million bail bond at the registrar office.  

A day ago, a team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had raided Shehbaz Sharif’s Model Town house in a bid to arrest him. While, his counsel had filed a pre-arrest bail plea on June 1, one day before he was set to appear at the NAB office.

Also Read: NAB team enters Shehbaz Sharif’s house

The PML-N president had refused to come to the NAB office citing health concerns as some of the NAB officials have been tested positive for coronavirus.

On May 20, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shibli Faraz had said that a reference against Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif regarding misappropriation of public funds would be filed after Eid-ul-Fitr.

“Barrister Shahzad Akbar had asked some questions from Shehbaz Sharif, but instead of giving proper answers to them, the opposition leader started demanding fresh elections in the country to avoid corruption cases,” he had said while talking to a local TV Channel.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had summoned Pakistan Muslim League-N President and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Apr 17 along with the relevant documents in money laundering case.

Sources had said the NAB had asked the PML-N president to provide details of the assets and properties that he received in inherited from his father.

The accountability watchdog had inquired that how the assets of Shehbaz Sharif’s family grew from 360 million rupees to 5.49 billion rupees between 1998 and 2018. It had also demanded provision of details of bank accounts and assets abroad.