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Nawaz, Maryam Granted Exemption from Appearance

Islamabad (November 15, 2017):  The Accountability Court hearing corruption references against Sharif family has accepted Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz’s applications seeking exemption from  personal appearance in the court.

Judge accountability court Muhammad Bashir, who has reserved order on the applications earlier in the day after hearing arguments of applicants’ counsels and NAB prosecutors, pronounced the judgment.

The court allowed Nawaz Sharif application for exemption for seven days starting from Nov 20, 2017 while the court granted exemption to Maryam Nawaz from personal appearance in the court for one month.Before hearing began on Wednesday, both Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz filed separate applications for exemption from future court hearings.

The ousted PM, in his application, said that he should be exempted from trial hearings till November 27 as the next spell of his wife’s chemo therapy is about to begin. “We have been together for 40 years, I can’t abandon my wife in testing times,” Sharif said in his application.In her application, Maryam said that she would present herself in court whenever there’s a hearing, however, if she has to leave the country in case of an emergency, the court should allow her representative — Jahangir Jadoon — to appear in court in her stead.

The NAB prosecutors raised an objection on both applications and said that both Sharif and his daughter are not ill, which is why they should both be kept from missing court hearings. However, the court allowed both the applications.

Earlier during the hearing, two prosecution witness statements were recorded against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired captain Muhammad Safdar in an accountability court as a trial pertaining to three National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references against them went underway on Wednesday.As the trial began, the NAB prosecution presented its first two witnesses in court ─ Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Joint Registrar Sidra Mansoor and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Inland Revenue Department representative, Jahangir Ahmad ─ both of whom recorded their statements.

Mansoor recorded her statement in the Avenfield flats reference, telling the court that she had appeared before the Investigation Officer in Lahore on August 18, and provided NAB documents containing the Sharif family’s financial records.

“The records that NAB has presented in court hold my signatures and thumb impressions,” Mansoor told the court, adding that, among other things, the records also contained audit reports of the Sharif family’s various businesses.In her statement, Mansoor revealed that the Hudaibiya Paper Mills audit reports consistently showed Rs494,6000 in the company’s accounts for five years between 2000 to 2005.

Nawaz counsel Khawaja Haris while conducing cross examination on the witness observed that the audit reports submitted by the SECP to NAB were photocopies and did not have the company’s stamp on them.

Defending the authenticity of the documents, Mansoor said that the photocopies were provided to the SECP by the Sharifs’ company as per the law.

FBR’s Jahangir Ahmad also recorded his witness statement and said that all tax records that NAB had provided to the court were given to the accountability body by his office.  Ahmad has been called to appear in court again in Nov 22 for cross-questioning in the next hearing of the case.A five-member bench of the Supreme Court on July 28 had directed NAB to file references against Nawaz and his children in six weeks in the accountability court and directed the trial court to decide the references within six months.

The Supreme Court also assigned Justice Ijazul Ahsan a supervisory role to monitor the progress of the accountability court proceedings.

NAB had filed three references on Sept 8 against Sharif and his family, and another reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The three references against the Sharif family are related to the Flagship Investment Ltd, the Avenfield (London) properties and Jeddah-based Al-Azizia Company and Hill Metal Establishment.

The former premier and his sons, Hassan and Hussain, have been named in all three NAB references, while Maryam and husband Safdar have been named only in the Avenfield reference.

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