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SC Again Rejects Nawaz Plea To Merge NAB References

Islamabad (February 21, 2018): The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday rejected appeal of Sharif family to restore the petition seeking merger of three National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar conducted hearing of the case in his chamber during which, Sharif family lawyer Ayesha Hamid appeared and presented her arguments.

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CJP upheld the reservations of registrar office and rejected the petition.

It is pertinent to mention here that former Prime Minister had moved Supreme Court seeking the apex court to merge the three reference against Sharif family into one reference.The petition filed by Nawaz lawyer Saad Hashmi also asked the court to stay the proceeding on the reference till the disposal of the petition.

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The petition has named Federation, Law Ministry and NAB as respondents in the petition. The petition submitted that as per Sub section 5 of Section 9 of NAB Ordinance, no matter how much the assets were of an accused, a single reference was filed.The petition also pleads for the Supreme Court’s July 28 direction to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file three corruption references to be declared illegal.

The Sharif family’s petition states that holding of several trials based on one allegation is against the basic rights of the petitioners.

At present, Nawaz, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar are set to be indicted on October 19 by the accountability court hearing corruption cases against them.Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar’s indictment deferred until Oct 19 due to lawyers’ commotion

The court has also separated the trials of Nawaz’s sons, Hasan and Hussain, who have not shown up for a single hearing as they are in London.

It is to be mentioned here that NAB has in total 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.

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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