A court Monday restrained Pakistan's top anti-graft body from arresting Hamza Shehbaz, the Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly and the son of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Shehbaz Sharif.
A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court, headed by Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmed Khan, restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting Hamza until further notice, Geo TV reported.
The court also ordered Hamza to pay surety bonds worth Rs10 million and issued a notice to NAB seeking its reply in the matter.
A NAB team had carried out two successive raids on Friday and Saturday at Shehbaz's Model Town residence to arrest Hamza.
During Monday's hearing, Hamza's lawyer told the court, "In an earlier order, the high court had directed that Hamza be informed 10 days prior to his arrest. The LHC had granted bail to my client in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case."
Hamza's lawyer then said, "NAB should share evidence against us and we will respond. Hamza had also approached LHC before this on November 1 and is innocent."
However, the NAB prosecutor stated, "We have solid evidence against Hamza. On April 3, an inquiry against Hamza was upgraded to an investigation. Hamza's earlier bail petition had been declared ineffective and the Supreme Court has issued a ruling on this matter."
At this, the bench said, "Both the matters are separate."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content