Daily Times

The Supreme Court will hear next week an appeal filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) order in the Avenfield case suspending sentences of Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar.

A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will hear the case on January 14. The other members of the bench are Justice Asif Saeed, Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Mazhar Alam.

An accountability court on July 6, 2018, had sentenced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to a total of 10 years in prison and directed him to pay a fine of £8 million after finding him guilty on different charges in the Avenfield properties case. Judge Muhammad Bashir had handed out seven-year imprisonment to the former prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and a fine of £2 million. While her husband was awarded one-year jail term.

IHC accepts Nawaz’s plea against Al Azizia verdict

However on Sept 19, the IHC suspended the conviction of Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar in the case. A division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb suspended their sentence through a short verdict which came on a petition filed by Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and her spouse seeking suspension of the Avenfield verdict until a final decision on their appeals against the sentence. Later, the NAB approached the apex court challenging the IHC verdict releasing Sharif and his family members.

Meanwhile, The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday accepted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s petition seeking the earliest possible date for scheduling a hearing on his appeal against the Al Azizia reference verdict, a private TV channel reported.

A two-member division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard the former prime minister’s supplementary petition requesting the court to hear his plea against the seven-year jail term awarded to him in the Al Azizia reference at the earliest. After a delay in the hearing of the petition due to the absence of Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Harris, the court accepted his request and instructed the registrar office to fix a date within 10 days for hearing Nawaz’s plea.

An accountability court on December 24 had found the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader guilty in the Al Azizia Steel Mills reference and sentenced him to seven years in prison. Nawaz had filed an appeal against the punishment and also submitted a petition seeking suspension of the sentence. In the appeal, Nawaz has claimed that the accountability court’s judgement was based on ‘misunderstanding’ and ‘misinterpretation of the law’, and the evidences were addressed inappropriately. The application further remarked that the grievances of the accused were not heard and addressed.

Published in Daily Times, January 10^th 2019.