Daily Times

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar Monday filed three separate appeals in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against accountability court verdict in the Avenfield reference.

The appeals that highlight ‘legal flaws’ in the Avenfield judgement ask for the accountability court’s verdict to be declared null and void and the three convicts be released on bail. They state that Panama case joint investigation team (JIT) head and prosecution’s star witness Wajid Zia had himself accepted that a response to the mutual legal assistance (MLA) request was not received, adding that levelling allegations without receiving a response to the MLA was mala fide.

Legal counsels of the convicts have contended that the prosecution’s witness Robert Radley not only stated that Calibri font was available for testing purposes but also admitted to having downloaded and using the Calibri font which was available as a pre-release of Windows Vista known as BETA-1 since year 2005, while simultaneously admitting that he was neither a computer expert nor an IT expert or a computer geek.

Later on while speaking to media, Maryam’s legal counsel Amjad Pervaiz stated that the accountability court’s verdict in the Avenfield reference was not in compliance with the law. “The accountability court’s verdict is in contradiction with the law and declaring it void would serve the justice,” he said. “Our case is very strong and on merit. We are on the right and we hope some relief from the court,” he said.

The IHC will hear the appeals on Tuesday (today).

An additional appeal was also filed on Monday requesting the court to transfer the Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references against Nawaz Sharif from the court of Accountability Judge-I Muhammad Bashir to another accountability court.

Nawaz and Maryam arrived in Pakistan on Friday evening. They were arrested at the Lahore airport and shifted to Adiala Jail. Safdar is in prison since July 9.

Published in Daily Times, July 17^th 2018.