An accountability court of Lahore has acquitted former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and others of all the charges in the Aashiana Iqbal reference.
Announcing a reserved verdict, the court on Saturday accepted the application for acquittal filed by 10 suspects, including Shehbaz Sharif, Fawad Hassan Fawad and Ahad Cheema.
Other suspects included Imtiaz Haider, Bilal Kidwai, Shahid Mahmood, Munir Zia, Shahid Shafiq, Ali Sajjad Bhutta and Muhammad Sadiq.
The court has previously already acquitted Nadeem Zia and Kamran Kiani in the case.
Earlier today, the court had reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from lawyers of both sides.
During the hearing of the acquittal applications on Saturday, the attorney general and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted their reports.
The NAB prosecutor told the court that the Supreme Court verdict did not impact the case at hand.
Shehbaz Sharif's lawyer, Amjad Pervaiz, while talking to the media, said the court wanted to know the stance of the NAB, and the bureau and the attorney general submitted their positions in writing. They adopted the stance that the Supreme Court’s verdict did not impact this case.
The court sought assistance on the point of the Supreme Court stopping from announcing any decision on all the NAB cases. Shehbaz Sharif's representative, Anwar Hussain, appeared in court and completed his appearance.
In the petitions for acquittal, the stance adopted was that the allegations of corruption in Aashiana Iqbal project were false.
The reference was filed against the suspects in 2018. Shahbaz Sharif and others were accused of causing a loss to the national exchequer by awarding a contract to a single company.
Later, speaking exclusively to Samaa TV, Shehbaz Sharif said: "Thank God for this success. The country suffered huge losses due to political revenge and personal egos. God has supported my position in the court decision.”
