Shehbaz Sharif has been cleared of charges in the Ashiana Housing scam.
-Ahad Cheema and Fawad Hassan have also been cleared by the court. -The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) declared the absence of corruption evidence against Shehbaz Sharif. -The verdict, initially reserved on November 2, was announced by ATC Judge Zulqarnain Awan.
Former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and 10 others have been acquitted in the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme case by a Lahore accountability court, as reported by News 24/7 pk on Saturday. The court also declared incumbent federal minister Ahad Cheema and Fawad Hassan Fawad innocent.
On November 2, Judge Malik Ali Zulqarnain Awan of the accountability court reserved the verdict after concluding final arguments from both counsels and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutors on acquittal pleas.
The acquittal applications asserted that all prosecution witnesses and approvers had withdrawn their statements, indicating no possibility of conviction. The applicants urged the court to approve the applications and clear them of charges.
In a May report, NAB informed the court that it found no evidence of financial corruption or misuse of authority by Shehbaz Sharif. The report stated that the allegations against the former prime minister were not substantiated under the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999.
The reference, filed by NAB in 2018, alleged that Shehbaz Sharif and others had caused significant financial loss to the national treasury by awarding a construction contract without a competitive bidding process.
Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on October 5, 2018, in connection with the case, while Cheema was taken into custody on February 21 of the same year. Both were later released on bail.
Earlier, Kamran Kiyani and Nadeem Zia were acquitted by the court due to a "lack of evidence." NAB claimed that Cheema received illegal benefits for awarding the housing scheme contract to a proxy firm.
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