Pakistan’s Opposition leader and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza were indicted in a money laundering case by an accountability court here on Wednesday.
The country’s anti-graft body, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), framed the charges against Shahbaz, who is the younger brother of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza in the accountability court of Judge Jawadul Hasan.
Both the father and son have denied the charges and pleaded for innocence.
Shahbaz told the court that his political opponents, referring Prime Minister Imran Khan, had instituted false cases against him and his family members.
“I had saved only Rupees 81 billion from the Lahore metro train project and in 10 years as chief minister of Punjab I saved trillions of rupees in different development projects. If a single rupee corruption is proved against me even after my death, take me out of the grave and hang me,” he said.
He said the NAB was being used for political engineering against the Opposition.
“NAB has yet to bring forth any evidence against me and my family members,” Shahbaz said and informed the court that he had severe backache, but the jail authorities ignored this and brought him to the court in an armoured car.