An accountability court on Tuesday granted permanent exemption from court appearance to prime minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif in a money laundering case.

PM Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza are facing a case of a Rs16 billion in money laundering through fake companies.

Accountability court judge Qamar-u-Zaman heard the case.

At the start of today’s hearing, PM Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel submitted a plea seeking permanent exemption from the court appearance, which was accepted by the court.

The court allowed PM Shehbaz to appoint a representative for an appearance in court. Meanwhile, a reply has been sought from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over Hamza Shahbaz’s plea of seeking exemption from court appearance. 

Further hearing of the case has been adjourned until October 25.

In the last hearing, PM Shehbaz told the court that he, in his capacity as the chief minister of Punjab for 20 years, made decisions that “hurt” his family’s sugar business.

“I was requested to provide subsidy to sugar mills, but I refused. I refused as the amount (that would be used for subsidy) was of the poor people in Punjab,” PM Shehbaz Sharif had said.

The PM termed the money laundering case against him as “fake” and said that he never provided a subsidy to sugar mills.