PML-N chief's son offloaded by FIA from Doha-bound flight

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Shehbaz Sharif's son and opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz was offloaded on Tuesday from a Doha-bound flight by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

"Hamza, a nephew of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, arrived at the Lahore airport to catch a flight of a foreign airline to London via Doha," Attaullah Tarar, a spokesman for the Sharif family, said in a statement.

He said Hamza was going to London to meet his younger brother Salman.

"At the immigration counter, an official of the Federal Investigation Agency first told him that his name was on the black list and later declared that his name was on the exist control list," Tarar said.

 

The country's anti-graft body National Accountability Bureau is probing Hamza and Salman in two cases income beyond means and misuse of government funds.

According to the NAB, both brothers in the capacity of directors (Ramzan Sugar Mills) got constructed a bridge linking to their mills out of the public money in Chiniot. It said Rs 20 crore was approved by then chief minister and their father Shehbaz Sharif for the construction of the bridge.

Both Salman and his brother-in-law Imran Ali Yousaf are allegedly hiding in London. Yousaf has been declared a proclaimed offender by the accountability court in the Punjab Saaf Pani Company and the Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC) cases.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said Hamza was prevented from boarding the flight at the immigration counter, where he was told that he had been placed on the no-fly list.

"Hamza is not a terrorist. He is a responsible citizen and politician," she said and demanded that the government must disclose under what law Hamza's name was placed on the ECL.

She said it has been established that PML-N leaders and the Sharif family are the target of the Imran Khan government.

"Imran Khan is doing revengeful politics," she added.

Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has also been in jail on judicial remand in Rs 1400 crore Ashiyana Housing scam. NAB had arrested him on October 5.