Suleman Shehbaz was ordered to appear before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on December 13 and was prohibited from being arrested till then by the court.
The petitioner was not to be arrested at the airport, the court ordered in addition to issuing the orders. The decisions were made by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq after he heard a request for protective bail made by the prime minister’s son.
Amjad Pervez, Suleman’s lawyer, informed the court at the hearing that all of the cases were filed after his client left the country in October 2018.
However, the judge told the lawyer that without the applicant present, it was not possible to grant bail.
At this point, Pervez urged the court to prevent the police from arresting his client and stated that his client will arrive in Islamabad on December 11. He also gave the court Suleman Shehbaz’s airline ticket.
Suleman was ordered to come before the bench on December 13 after the court granted the lawyer’s request. The court also prohibited the authorities from arresting the prime minister’s son upon his arrival.
The son of PM Shehbaz chose to escape his exile in London and had contacted the IHC through his counsel Amjad Pervaiz to request two-week protective bail in a money laundering case filed against him.
Suleman had requested a protective bail from the court so he could appear before the appropriate place after returning to the country.
Suleman ends London exile to return to Pakistan
Following the end of his more than four-year exile in the British capital, Suleman Shhebaz is set to return to Pakistan.
On his journey to Pakistan, the son of the prime minister is now traveling through Saudi Arabia to conduct the Umrah. He and his family will be traveling to Pakistan on Saturday.
Prior to the 2018 general elections, Suleman traveled from Pakistan to London, where the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) began to file various cases against him.
Along with his father, the current prime minister, his brother Hamza Shehbaz, and other members of the Sharif family, he was also mentioned in a number of cases.
Suleman was investigated in London by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in Shahbaz’s money-laundering and misuse of public office case at the request of the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU), led by Shahzad Akbar, a former accountability aide to Imran Khan. However, after two years of investigation by the UK’s top anti-corruption investigators, Suleman was given a clean bill of health.
Suleman stated he was forced to leave Pakistan as a result of false and fabricated cases being brought against him and his family to allow the establishment of a new political system.
He claimed that no one leaves their native country and goes into exile of their own choice; it was only because of unfair circumstances that he was forced to “leave Pakistan for safety.”
“When a whole structure was put in place to bring in the hybrid system, replacing us as a family and as a political party, there was no hope of any justice at that time. The system as a whole was built on unfairness and depended on dishonesty, victimhood, and lies. The entire system was designed to target us by creating cases and using the apparatus of the state.
The worst example of a political witch hunt and political victimization, he stated in a statement from Madinah. The cases created by the Assets Recovery Unit and National Accountability Bureau under former NAB chairman Javed Iqbal contained no truth and no shred of proof of corruption.”
“The previous government blackmailed the former NAB chairman through a relationship scandal and scandalous videos in order to construct cases against me and my family,” the prior regime said.
“He was warned that if he didn’t create these situations in order to feed the media nonstop lies to ruin our reputation, he would lose his job. Even those in politics who are the greatest of our opponents, we will never wish them such harm.