LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore on Monday approved the closure of the investigation in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
The verdict was announced by the accountability court’s judge Rana Arif on the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) petition to halt the investigation.
The NAB prosecutor argued that there was no evidence of corruption against Nawaz and Maryam.
Following the arguments, the court gave final approval to discontinue the probe into the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case against the top leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The Chaudhry Sugar Mills money-laundering investigation had begun after the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) flagged billions of rupees in suspicious transactions under the Anti-Money Laundering Act in January 2018. At that time, the PML-N was in power.
Following the FMU report, the anti-graft watchdog launched a formal inquiry in October 2018. The probe revealed that Nawaz, Maryam, Shahbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif, and other family members were shareholders in the company, along with foreign investors from the UAE and the UK.
The probe had found that between 2001 and 2017, investments worth billions of rupees were made in Chaudhry Sugar Mills under the pretext of issuing shares to foreign partners.
Later, these shares were repeatedly transferred back to Maryam, Hussain Nawaz, and Nawaz without any payment being made to the original foreign shareholders.
Maryam had also been taken into custody by the anti-corruption watchdog in August 2019 in connection with the same case.
NAB challenges LHC verdict
In a separate development earlier today, the NAB appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) against the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) February 4, 2026, decision regarding CM Maryam in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
The anti-corruption watchdog argued that the LHC interfered with the chairman’s authority by making the inquiry closure conditional on judicial approval. The bureau maintained it had legal authority to withdraw proceedings before filing a reference.
The bureau also contended that the LHC misinterpreted Section 31B(1) of the NAB amendments and effectively amended the law by imposing judicial approval, which is not required under legislation. The court acted without notice to the attorney general.
The NAB stated that the inquiry had been withdrawn on April 3, 2024, and Maryam later sought the return of her Rs70 million surety bonds.
