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 decision was announced by Accountability Court judge Rana Arif after hearing a petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau seeking to halt the investigation.
During the hearing, the NAB prosecutor told the court that no evidence of corruption had been found against Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz. Following the arguments, the court approved the bureau’s request and formally closed the probe into the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case involving the leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
The money-laundering investigation into Chaudhry Sugar Mills began after the Financial Monitoring Unit flagged billions of rupees in suspicious transactions under the Anti-Money Laundering Act in January 2018.
Following the report, NAB launched a formal inquiry in October 2018, which found that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif, Abbas Sharif and other family members were shareholders in the company along with foreign investors from the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
Investigators had alleged that between 2001 and 2017, investments worth billions of rupees were made in the company by issuing shares to foreign partners, which were later transferred back to Maryam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif without payment to the original shareholders.
Maryam Nawaz had also been arrested by NAB in August 2019 in connection with the case.
In a related development, NAB has challenged a February 4, 2026 ruling of the Lahore High Court before the Federal Constitutional Court regarding the same case.
The bureau argued that the high court interfered with the authority of the NAB chairman by making the closure of the inquiry conditional on judicial approval, maintaining that the law allows the watchdog to withdraw proceedings before filing a reference.
According to NAB, the inquiry had already been withdrawn on April 3, 2024, after which Maryam Nawaz sought the return of her Rs70 million surety bonds.
