ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday ordered a six-week extension to accountability court to conclude corruption references against former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
Earlier on Monday the accountability court had pled the SC to extend the deadline of the corruption references.
After today’s extension, this is the fourth time that the deadline of the much hyped corruption references has been extended since September 2017.
Originally the SC had set a six month deadline to conclude all three references against the Sharifs.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar heading a two member-bench comprising of Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the extension plea.
During the hearing, Nawaz Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris argued that the witnesses and evidence are similar in all three references thus a different Judge should hear the other two references since the Avenfield properties reference verdict has been announced.
Haris maintained the view that the Avenfield judgement may influence the verdict of the other two references Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investments Ltd.
However, CJP Nisar disagreed observing that the reference cases will proceed on merit without any prejudice by the court.
CJP Nisar dismissed Haris’s request while Justice Ahsan observed that the references are not similar, adding that how is possible to change the Judge when he has recorded statements of all the witnesses of the case.
To this, Haris said that the trial court judge should hear his plea instead, which CJP agreed to.
CJP questioning Haris if their relationship will improve now, added that the National Accountability Bureau had requested for four weeks but the court is granting six.
During the hearing CJP questioned Haris if he was aware what the SC was doing for the good of the country, criticising his repeatedly chanted ‘unfairness’ slogans towards the top court.
The SC gave an extension to the accountability court of six weeks for concluding the corruption references, adding that another extension may be sought if the trail fails to be concluded.
Earlier on July 6 the accountability court had announced its verdict in the Avenfield verdict while two other reference verdicts pending, sentencing imprisonment to Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar to 10, 7 and 1 year respectively.
On Monday’s hearing Haris had sought change of the accountability court Judge hearing the other two references, arguing that the verdict of the remaining references may be given under prejudice or be influenced.
Haris had asserted that the defense wanted a collective verdict on all three references.
The court adjourned the hearing until July 12.