Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court has raised objection over a petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking cancellation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s bail in the Avenfield reference.

The Registrar’s Office of the Islamabad High Court has raised technical objections to the NAB’s request. The bureau had yesterday filed a petition seeking cancellation of Nawaz Sharif’s bail in the Avenfield reference, in which it was held that the IHC had suspended Nawaz Sharif’s sentence in the Avenfield reference and the Supreme Court had also suspended Nawaz Sharif’s sentence. The decision of the High Court was upheld.

The NAB prosecutor pointed out that some PML-N leaders had advised Sharif not to return to the country. The prosecutor sought court action against the party leaders for violating its orders.

He noted that NAB had already filed appeals in IHC in connection with the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment references.

The petition read that Sharif had misused the bail granted on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia case and his party leaders had interfered in court affairs.

The Islamabad Accountability Court-I had sentenced Sharif to 10-year imprisonment in Avenfield case in July 2018, while the Islamabad Accountability Court-II had sentenced him to seven-year jail term in Al-Azizia case in December 2018.

In September 2018, an IHC bench suspended the sentences handed down to the former prime minister, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law capt (retd) Mohammad Safdar in the Avenfield case.