The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) challenging the Islamabad High Court’s order of transferring two corruption references against former premier Nawaz Sharif and members of his family to Accountability Court judge Mohammad Arshad Malik. A bench of the apex court dismissed the petition when a NAB lawyer informed it that the bureau wanted to withdraw it. In the petition, the anti-graft watchdog had pleaded the apex court to set aside the IHC decision of transferring the pending corruption cases against the Sharif family from Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir to another court. Judge Muhammad Bashir had awarded 10-year imprisonment to Sharif, seven to his daughter Maryam Nawaz and one year to her spouse Safdar in the Avenfield case, one of the three references filed against the Sharif family by the bureau. Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik is hearing the two pending references – Al-Azizia/Hill Metal Establishment and Flagship Investment references against the Sharifs. PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (retired) Safdar were released from Adiala prison after an Islamabad High Court bench suspended their sentence and ordered their release on bail. On Sept 19, a division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb granted a petition filed by the Sharif family seeking suspension of the Avenfield verdict until a final decision on their appeals against the sentence. Published in Daily Times, September 26th 2018.