LAHORE: A Pakistani court on Thursday acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in an eight-year-old corruption case after the complainant disassociated himself from it.

Anti-Corruption Court Judge Sardar Muhammad Iqbal announced the verdict, which was reserved on Monday.

"An Anti-Corruption Court of Lahore today acquitted PM Shehbaz Sharif and his son former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz in the Ramzan Sugar Mills corruption case after the complainant disassociated himself from the case," a court official said. Complainant Zulfiqar Ali told the judge that he neither filed the complaint against the Sharifs nor was he aware of the application on which the case was initiated.

"The complainant's statement shows how the military establishment frames politicians in different cases when they are confronting it and once they are at its side or in its good books such cases are reversed within no time," a political observer told PTI.

In 2018, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a case against Sharif and Hamza for causing a loss of over PKR 200 million to the national exchequer by misuse of authority.

Hamza and his younger brother Suleman own the Ramzan Sugar Mills in Punjab and it was alleged that Sharif being Punjab chief minister at that time had issued a directive for the construction of a drain in the Chiniot district primarily for the use of their mills.

Sharif and Hamza were arrested in 2018 and 2019, respectively. However, they were later granted bail by the Lahore High Court.

The defence counsel had argued that the case against them was “politically motivated”.

Both Sharif and Hamza were indictment in the case. Following the change of Imran Khan's government in 2022 the prosecution had virtually stopped pursuing the case.