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LAHORE: An accountability court here on Friday directed Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz to appear in person in the Ramazan Sugar Mills case on June 11.

The accountability judge, Amjad Nazir Chaudhry, has directed the PML-N president to show up on the next hearing at any cost.

On April 9, 2019, the court had indicted Hamza and his father Shehbaz Sharif in the same case.

However, both accused had denied the charges against them, and maintained that they had saved Rs2300 billion, assuring that the money was not misused.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor had submitted complete details of assets of PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif’s family members in the court with an argument that their assets were beyond their known sources of income.

“Billions of rupees were added to the assets of Shehbaz’s family, whereas Hamza couldn’t provide details of the sources of his income,” he added.

While the Ashiana-e-Iqbal reference, the accountability court issued arrest warrants for accused Shahid Mahmood over no-show. The court directed prison authorities to present all accused under custody before it on the next hearing at all cost, saying it is under obligation to wind up the trial proceedings in four months.

Advocate Nawaz appeared on behalf of Shehbaz Sharif. However, former director general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema did not turn up owing to the coronavirus fears.

Meanwhile, the court adjourned the money laundering and assets beyond means cases against Hamza till June 18. The PML-N leader, who is in judicial custody, was not brought to the court owing to the pandemic.

The court directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit a report on the reference against him by next hearing.—NNI