LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) registrar office on Monday fixed the hearing of a pending petition seeking a restraining order against federal minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and his brother provincial minister Hashim Jawan Bakht on charges of accumulating illegal assets.
Earlier, LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti allowed an application of the petitioner seeking an early hearing of the petition. After permission, the chief justice directed the registrar office to fix the hearing of the pending petition on an appropriate date.
Later, the registrar office, in compliance with the order, fixed hearing of the petition for May 12 before the court of the chief justice.
Ahsan Abid, a lawyer from Rahim Yar Khan, filed the petition saying the minister and his brothers owned six sugar mills, several investment companies, and agricultural land.
Read more: LHC asks Punjab govt to protect basic rights of persons with disabilities
He said these assets were beyond known sources of their income.
He said the names of the Makhdoom brothers also appeared in “Pandora Papers” and “Swiss Papers” but no action had been initiated against them.
The lawyer said the Multan office of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had conducted an inquiry during 2018 into the assets of the family and found them unexplained.
Read more: We should be ashamed: Fawad reacts to LHC verdict in Qandeel Baloch case
He said a regional board meeting on Dec 11, 2018, decided to forward the matter to the NAB headquarters with a recommendation for a complete inquiry and further action in accordance with the law.
The petitioner said the NAB was bound to complete the inquiry and submit its report before the relevant accountability court.
However, he alleged, the bureau had not submitted the report due to the pressure of the federal minister.
He asked the high court to issue an order to the NAB to submit an investigation report and a reference on the complaint of the petitioner.
