PM Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza acquitted in Ramzan Sugar Mills case

LAHORE: An anti-corruption court on Thursday acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case.

Anti-Corruption Court Judge Sardar Iqbal Dogar announced the reserved verdict in the case accusing the then Punjab chief minister, of misuse of authority by utilising public funds for the construction of a sludge carrier to facilitate the Ramzan Sugar Mills owned by his sons.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed the reference on February 18, 2019, accusing Shehbaz of instructing the construction of a 10-kilometre sludge carrier in district Chiniot, thereby inflicting 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.

Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza 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.

In November 2023, PM Shehbaz and 10 others were acquitted by an accountability court in Lahore in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference.

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

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