Islamabad (October 19, 2017): The accountability court hearing NAB references against the Sharif family has rejected former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s application to suspend the proceedings against him in the references till disposal of a petition pending in supreme court.
The court has also rejected a separate application filed by Nawaz’s daughter- Maryam Nawaz and her husband Capt (retd) Safder pleading the court not to indict them in the reference on different grounds.
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The court after hearing preliminary arguments of the applicants counsels reserved it judgments. After a break, the court announced it verdict rejecting both the applications.
Earlier, advancing arguments on Nawaz Sharif’s application his counsel Ayesha Hamid pleaded the court to suspend the proceeding on the reference against her client.
She submitted that her client had challenged the filing of multiple references by NAB against him in a single assets case, which she said was illegal and against NAB law.
The counsel informed the court that they had pleaded the apex court to direct the NAB to consolidate the references into one and refile these.
She pleaded the judge to suspend the proceeding till the disposal of the petition.
Maryam and MNA Capt (retd) Safdar’s counsel Amjad Pervez argued before Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir that his clients were not provided the complete documents of the case and thus the indictment process should be halted.
On October 13, the former prime minister filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of the ‘concurrent’ corruption references against him.
The plea calls upon the Supreme Court to halt the accountability court proceedings of the three references against the Sharif family until a single reference is filed.
At the last hearing on October 13, the former prime minister did not appear in court as he was in London, along with his sons, to be with his wife who is undergoing treatment for lymphoma.
Judge Mohammad Bashir also approved NAB’s plea to declare Hussain and Hasan Nawaz proclaimed offenders and separated their proceedings in the three references filed against them.
The NAB had filed three references against the Sharif family and one against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the accountability court, in light of the Supreme Court’s orders in the Panama Papers case verdict of July 28.
The anti-graft body was given six weeks, from the date of the apex court’s order, to file the reference in an accountability court while the accountability court was granted six months to wrap up the proceedings.
The references against the Sharif family pertain to the Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment, their London properties and over dozen offshore companies owned by the family.
Maryam and Safdar were nominated in the London properties reference. NAB’s Rawalpindi branch prepared two references regarding the Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment, and the nearly dozen companies owned by the Sharif family.
Its Lahore branch prepared a reference on the Sharif family’s Avenfield apartments in London and another against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for owning assets beyond his known sources of income.
If convicted, the accused may face up to 14 years imprisonment and lifelong disqualification from holding public office including the freezing of bank accounts and assets
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