IHC adjourned Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against Avenfield & Al-Azizia cases till Wednesday

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday adjourned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif’s appeals against his convictions in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption cases till Wednesday.

The two-member division bench was presided over by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq today along with Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb.

Nawaz Sharif’s counsel, Amjad Pervaiz stated that Panama Papers Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was formed by the SC.

The JIT submitted their report to the apex court on July 10, 2017. He further stated that on July 28, then-premier Nawaz Sharif was disqualified and the SC ordered NAB to file a reference within six weeks of its verdict.

The counsel maintained that the NAB has argued that it had no other option but to file references in the light of the Supreme Court verdict.

On July 28, 2017, Nawaz was disqualified by the Supreme Court for hiding the salary that he was entitled to as a director, while bearing the office of the prime minister, at one of his sons’ companies.

These details were mentioned in his nomination papers which he submitted ahead of the 2013 general elections.

IHC CJ Farooq observed that the NAB had tried to prove that Maryam Nawaz was the beneficial owner of the Avenfiled apartments.

Responding to the judges’s remarks, the counsel contended that the NAB had failed to prove that the Maryam was beneficial owner of the apartments. It was on the prosecution to establish that Nawaz was the owner and his children were benamidar (actual owner) in the case.

PML-N’s Azam Nazeer Tarar asked the court to exempt Nawaz from appearing before the court. “There are security issues at every hearing,” he contended. “You file an application for exemption then we will see,” Justice Farooq responded. The court adjourned the hearing till Wednesday, November 29.

Background

In 2018, Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to 10 and seven years in prison in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references, respectively.He was also fined Rs1.5 billion and $25 million.

Nawaz Sharif’s children, Maryam, Hasan and Hussain Nawaz were also found guilty. Maryam Nawaz was sentenced to imprisonment for seven years for being “instrumental in the concealment of the properties of her father” and for not cooperating with NAB.

Nawaz Sharif pleas stated that IHC dismissed Nawaz’s appeals for non-compliance in June 2021 due to his prolonged stay in London, arguing that the PML-N supremo never took advantage of the bail granted to him in all the cases.Nawaz had filed two separate applications seeking the restoration of his appeals against his conviction in both references.