Daily Times

In a bid to keep the Islamabad High Court (IHC) from ruling on an application filed by the Sharif family seeking the suspension of the Avenfield verdict, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday approached the Supreme Court pleading that the appeals by Sharif family members against the Avenfield reference verdict and their bail petitions cannot be heard simultaneously.

The petition submitted in the apex court by NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal stated that the IHC without notifying the federation conducted hearing of the Sharif family’s appeals against their conviction in the Avenfield reference verdict and their bail pleas simultaneously. The IHC’s division bench acted against the principles by not notifying the federation, the petition said, praying the apex court to cancel the IHC’s September 10 judgement.

Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar had moved the IHC to suspend the verdict in the Avenfield properties reference after they were convicted by an accountability court on July 6, 2018.

According to the petition, the Islamabad High Court did not send NAB a notice before accepting the Sharif family’s petition for hearing. “The high court cannot rule on the Sharif family’s petition without listening to NAB’s perspective,” it said. The petition added that ruling on the suspension application is not in the high court’s jurisdiction and thus the IHC should be stopped from hearing the petition at all.

Published in Daily Times, September 16^th 2018.