By The South Asia Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's another son is likely to get a clean chit from court in a multi-billion money laundering case as he arrived in the country after four years in self-exile. 

Suleman Shehbaz, who was a fugitive in a money laundering case and fled to London when the then government launched an investigation against the Sharif family in 2018.

On Sunday morning, Suliman arrived in Islamabad and he was escorted by officials in protocol from the airport to the Prime Minister's house. 

PM Sharif warmly welcomed his son at his official residence.

Local authorities didn’t arrest him despite absconding from courts as Islamabad High Court barred the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB from arresting him in an assets-beyond-means reference, while hearing his petition for protective bail that would enable him to surrender before a trial court, according to Dawn. 

Suleman had been in London with his family since 2018 when the National Accountability Bureau (FIA) registered multiple cases against him ahead of the general election and he left Pakistan after appearing in a few hearings.

In June 2020, the NAB had seized Suleman’s shares amounting to Rs2.0 billion in 16 companies along with cash worth Rs4.1 million held in three bank accounts as well as 10 marlas agricultural land and pieces of land spreading over 209 kanals, according to Dawn.

NAB had also alleged that assets worth Rs3.3b had been identified back then as illegally accumulated by Suleman, his brother Hamza Shehbaz and their father Shehbaz Sharif.

According to the FIA report submitted to the court in December 2021, the investigation team “detected 28 benamidar accounts of the Shehbaz family through which money laundering of Rs16.3bn was committed from 2008-18. The FIA examined a money trail of 17,000 credit transactions.

Arrest warrants had been issued for Suleman on May 28 but the FIA told the court they could not be executed since he was not present at his address and had gone abroad.

PM Sharif and his son Hamza already got a clean chit from court in the said case after toppling former PM Imran Khan's government and taking the office of the premier in April this year.

On Saturday, his interior minister Rana Sanaullah was also acquitted in a drug case.

While former PM Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz was also acquitted in corruption cases and now shifted to London.

Former PM Khan accused the former army chief General retired Qamar Javed Bajwa to grant NRO 2 to Sharif's family and acquitted them in multi-billion rupees corruption cases. 

"If anyone wants to understand why Pakistan's economy is now a disaster, just 2 incidents provide the answer. 75 year old Senator Azam Swati has been subjected to custodial torture, beaten up in front of his grandchildren, his house vandalised & sealed, & he is being dragged from one prov to another under multiple false FIRs against him in total violation of all laws & basic human rights enshrined in our Constitution. In contrast an absconder responsible for billions in corruption & money laundering, Salman Shahbaz, is drycleaned & returns to Pak," Khan wrote on twitter.