Exemption facility withdrawn: Shehbaz asked to appear in person in Ashiana reference.

LAHORE -- An accountability court on Thursday withdrew the exemption it had granted to Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif from personal appearance in Ashiana reference and summoned him on the next hearing.

Withdrawing the facility, Presiding Judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry observed that the suspect, who was in the judicial lockup, had been appearing before the courts in various other cases against him. Therefore, the exemption could not be granted to him any more, the judge remarked and directed the jail officials to produce Mr Shehbaz in the court on Jan 26.

The judge had, on Jan 17, 2020, granted a permanent exemption to Shehbaz from personal appearance in the reference when he was in London to take care of his elder brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. A pleader was appointed by the court to appear on his behalf on each hearing.

Besides Shehbaz, former principal secretary to prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad and LDA former director general Ahad Cheema are also among the accused persons in the housing scheme reference filed by the NAB.

The...