Ramzan Sugar Mills, Ashiana cases: Hearing adjourned till May 11

LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore on Monday adjourned the hearing of the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing cases till May 11 due to the absence of the judge scheduled to conduct the hearing. 

The court was due to hear the Ashiana Housing case against the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, and the Ramzan Sugar Mills case against his son, Hamza Shehbaz. The cases, however, could not be heard as the judge was on leave.

The accountability court had earlier accepted an application by Shehbaz seeking exemption from personal appearance for a day. The PML-N president had submitted the application through his counsel Amjad Pervaiz, who had asked the court to grant his client exemption from court proceedings until May 8 as he was abroad for medical treatment.

Punjab Assembly opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz appeared before the court today; his security guards, however, were stopped from entering the court. 

The father-son duo were indicted in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case earlier this month. The National Accountability Bureau in February had filed a reference against the two alleging that the former chief minister of Punjab misused his authority by using public funds for the construction of a bridge to facilitate the Ramzan mills, owned by his sons.

 The PML-N president was earlier indicted in the Ashiana scheme case.