Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Havoc and chaos by lawyers and supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) forced the accountability court in Islamabad to postpone the indictment of the Sharif family until Oct 19 in a graft case on Friday.

According to sources outside the accountability court, soon after the arrival of Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (retd) Safdar, a large number of PML-N lawyers and supporters ambushed the judicial complex with repeated attempts at entering the courtroom.

However, the police and FC officials deployed at the scene for security barred them from entering.

During scuffles with the police that triggered on the occasion, PML-N lawyers and supporters shoved chief prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and slapped a senior police official at the entrance.

According to reports, it was President PML-N Lawyers Wing Punjab’s, Siddiq Awan who had a brawl with the NAB’s senior official Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi.

The disorderly crowd of the legal fraternity and ruling party workers were demanding that they be allowed to enter the court premises for the hearing of the cases against their leaders, as the accountability court claimed to be “an open court.”

Following Maryam Nawaz’s entrance into the courtroom, more lawyers and PML-N supporters managed to enter inside after several clashes with security guards.

Lawyers threatened to hold up the hearing until strict action was taken against the police officials that were allegedly accused of manhandling them outside the court.

The bench of judge Muhammad Bashir was circled, who in a scurry left the courtroom as a result of the chaos. The case record was also shifted in a timely manner before any possible harm could come to it.

The hearing was postponed until October 19 after the judge decided to end the court proceedings for the day and asked both defendants, Maryam Nawaz and Capt (retd) Safdar,  to leave the courtroom without indicting them.

Later, an application was filed to the judge by an advocate, Naeem Gujar who asked for an inquiry into the incident. The application was forwarded to IG Islamabad, with directions to him of thoroughly investigating the incident.

In the meanwhile, Maryam Nawaz, and PML-N leaders’ Maryam Aurangzeb and Talal Chaudhry condemned the incident, insisting the Interior Ministry to move forward with investigations.