ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday resumed the hearing of an appeal filed by Captain (r) Safdar Awan against the court’s conviction in the Avenfield corruption reference. A two-member bench of the IHC, comprising of Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the session. As the hearing started, the petitioner’s lawyer Amjad Pervez observed that a request to suspend punishment can only be accepted if the culprit is sentenced less than five years. Justice Farooq noted this was the reason that Safdar’s petition had been separated from his wife Maryam and father-in-law Nawaz Sharif’s pleas. The defence counsel then argued that while the court had sentenced all three convicted in the case to begin simultaneously. He further added that this was not the case for his client who had remained in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) custody for a day. Pervez further contended that the Accountability Court’s (AC) ruling in the Avenfield case was based on a forged signature on a trust deed. “The expert witness had admitted that the Calibri font was available in 2005,” he added. In response to this, Justice Farooq remarked that it would be better not to discuss the case’s merits. The IHC bench then ordered the petitioner to make the AC a party to the case as the appeal was against the latter’s ruling. On the other hand, the NAB had objected to Safdar’s petition against conviction. The hearing then adjourned till Monday. The Sharif family had filed a petition against the Avenfield convictions. Whereas, Nawaz had filed an appeal to transfer the Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment corruption references from the court of Judge Mohammad Bashir to another accountability court. On July 6, an accountability court sentenced Nawaz to a total of 11 years in prison and imposed a £8 million fine (Rs1.3 billion) in the corruption reference, while his daughter Maryam was sentenced to eight years with a £2 million fine (Rs335 million). Nawaz’s son-in-law Capt (retd) Safdar was also given a one-year sentence without any fine. The Sharifs have challenged the court’s verdict in IHC demanding the declaration of the verdict as null and release on bail. Also read Avenfield reference verdict: Nawaz gets 10 years, Maryam 7