LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday denied post-arrest bail to Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz in a case of assets beyond meanscum-money laundering after hearing arguments of his counsel at length.

During an extended hearing, a two-judge bench repeatedly asked senior attorney Salman Aslam Butt, the counsel for Hamza, to explain sources of income of his client but it found no satisfactory answer.

The counsel mainly put emphasis on his argument against jurisdiction of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to invoke AntiMoney Laundering Act (AMLA) 2010.`The bureau`s ordinance does not allow its investigating officers to exercise powers under the AMLA,` Advocate Butt responded to a query by the bench comprising Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem.

The charges leveled on the petitioner fell within the domain of AMLA, he said and added that the foreign remittances could be put to investigation within the period of five years only.

In case of the petitioner, the counsel said the NAB launched its inquiry af ter 10 years.

He further argued that the allegations pertained to a period when the petitioner was not a public office holder.

To a court`s query, NAB Special Prosecutor Faisal Bokhari said assets of thepetitioner and his family increased by Rs417 million from 2008 to 2019. The petitioner alone received Rs181 million as foreign remittances during 2005-08, he added.

At this, the bench asked the petitioner`s counsel as if he could explain sources of income of his client.

Advocate Butt said each and every income of the petitioner was already declared in his income tax returns and the same were also available with the NAB. He said the amounts being questioned by the bureau were received by the petitioner from his father, brother and sister.

Justice Naqvi observed that sources of income of the petitioner`s family were also needed to be explained.

The judge also asked the counsel to dis-cuss the role of co-suspects in the case against Hamza.

The counsel said the NAB could tell the court about the role of the co-suspects as reference had not been filed so far.

The counsel further argued that there had been no allegation of corruption or of receiving any illegal gratification against the petitioner.

`The court is also not talking about corruption,` the judge reminded the lawyer.

On his turn, Prosecutor Bokhari said the bureau traced three persons who used to send money to the petitioner from abroad and two of them also turned approver in the case. He also presented confessional statements of approvers namely Mehboob Ali and AftabAhmad.

He said the petitioner received gifts of worth Rs108m from his brother and sister during 2013-17.

He said CNICs of strange persons including street vendors were used for sending the amount of these gifts. He pointed out that the father of the petitioner held the office of chief minister of Punjab thrice.

The prosecutor said the petitioner established several benami companies and laundered billions of rupees through their accounts.

Reverting to the petitioner`s counsel, the judge observed that the bench got no satisfactory answers of the queries about the petitioner`s sources of income.

`If we agree to your arguments the law of anti-money laundering will stand nowhere,` the judge asked the counsel.

Advocate Butt said the AMLA could only be invoked if there was an offence. He said the law invoked by the NAB was made long af ter the transactions of the petitioner.

However, the bench dismissed the petition.

Scores of PML-N workers gathered on the court premises in anticipation of a decision in favour of their leader. MPAs Azma Bokhari and Rana Mashhood also attended the proceedings.