Islamabad (November 07, 2017): Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Mohammad Safdar appeared before the accountability court in Islamabad hearing corruption references against them.
Today judge of the accountability court Muhammad Bashir took up the application of Nawaz Sharif seeking the court to club all the three references against him as per the directives of Islamabad High court.
The court did not hear the main case against the Sharif family, rather hearing the application of the former premier, which it had earlier rejected, to club together all the references against him on the directives of IHC.
After lead defence counsel Khwaja Harris completed his arguments on the application for clubbing the references, the court went into recess for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the judge allowed Nawaz, Maryam and Safder to leave the court and asked NAB prosecutor to advance arguments on the application after the break.
Following the permission from the judge, Nawaz along with Maryam and Safder left the court for Punjab House.
After the break, NAB prosecutor is advancing arguments on the application. The prosecutor opposed Nawaz application. The hearing is underway.
Earlier, thecourt heard arguments from Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris about merging the three corruption references against the accused.
Sharif had arrived in the country from London to appear before the accountability court last Friday.
However, the hearing against Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law had adjourned after an order passed the previous day by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) regarding the clubbing of three references against the Sharif family could not be procured by the court in time.
At the outset of the proceedings on Friday, Judge Mohammad Bashir said he had read in a newspaper that the IHC had ordered clubbing of three corruption references together.
At this, NAB deputy prosecutor general Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi said the IHC had not passed such an order, but remanded the matter to the accountability court again.
After receiving the IHC short order issued on Nawaz Sharif’s petitions seeking a joint trial of all the three references, the judge then read out the order sheet, according to which the accountability court was asked to examine the matter in the light of Section 17-D.
The section reads: “A person accused of more offences than one of the same kind…may be charged with and tried at one trial for any number of such offences.”
Haris, the counsel for Sharif, argued that in case the references were clubbed together, the court would need to indict Sharif, Maryam and Safdar again.
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