Islamabad (November 2, 2017): The Islamabad High Court on Thursday nullifying the Accountability Court verdict and ordered to review its decision over the rejection of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif petition seeking to club all the references filed against him by the National Accountability Court.
The deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif has filed petition in IHC against the Accountability Court decision, in which court has rejected his petition to club all reference against him and requested single trial of all references.
A division bench of IHC headed by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani and Justice Aamir Farooq heard the petition filed by former PM and PML-N President Nawaz Sharif.
The ex-PM’s counsel spoke before the IHC bench that the accountability court dismissed the plea to hold trial after merging NAB references without any legal basis. He asked the IHC bench to halt tomorrow’s hearing in view of the arguments.
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On the other hand, NAB prosecutor opposed the arguments saying the Supreme Court had already dismissed the review petition of Nawaz Sharif, adding that the nature of charges imposed on the three references individually are not the same. He added that statements are being recorded after handing over the charge sheet.
Keeping in view arguments from both sides, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani remarked that the charges were classified according to criminal codes, but there’s no such thing alike in NAB ordinance. He ordered to revoke the October 19 verdict made by accountability and postpone tomorrow’s hearing in NAB court where ex-PM was set to appear.
IHC declaring ‘null and void’ the October 19 verdict of Accountability Court has returned all three petitions, filed by the Nawaz Sharif, to Accountability Court citing AC did not mention the grounds on which the all three petition were dismissed.
Court has also ordered the Accountability for re-hearing of the petition.
Earlier, IHC has reserved the verdict on a petition of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif seeking the court to order National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to club all the three references filed against him by declaring the incitements in the cases null and void.
The former PM has pleaded the court to order the accountability court to stop the indictment proceedings against him and hear all three cases as one.
The accountability court is hearing corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau against Nawaz and his family members, as well as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, in light of the Supreme Court’s order in the Panama Papers case.
Asif Kirmani had submitted a petition in IHC on Sharif’s behalf, stating separate indictments in three corruption cases is against the law therefore, the references should be merged into one.
Sharif’s political future has been in doubt since July when the Supreme Court sacked him following an investigation into corruption allegations against his family, making him the 15th premier in Pakistan’s 70-year history to be ousted before completing a full term.
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