ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday fixed for hearing former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia reference on December 7.
The National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) appeal to increase Sharif’s sentence has also been sched-uled for hearing. IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb will conduct the hearin. The capital’s high court had admitted applications for the revival of Sharif’s appeals against his convic-tion in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia corruption references last month.
Sharif was convicted in the Avenfield case in July 2018 and the Al-Azizia case in December of the same year. He later filed appeals against his convictions in the IHC.
However, on June 24, 2021, an IHC bench led by Justice Farooq rejected the appeals due to Sharif’s failure to appear in court for several hearings. Sharif, who was serving a seven-year jail term after his conviction in the Al-Azizia case, was granted rare permission to seek medical treatment abroad in October 2019.
The PML-N supreme leader chose not to return to the country despite repeated court summonses, leading to both the IHC and an accountability court declaring him a proclaimed offender.
In a major development favouring the former prime minister, the Islamabad High Court last week handed down an acquittal verdict in the Avenfield case, removing one of the last remaining thorns on his way back to the office.
Meanwhile, a concise written order regarding Sharif’s acquittal in the Avenfield reference was also re-leased today. According to the order, the NAB prosecutor during the hearing referenced the decision in the case of Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (retd) Safdar.
The order stated that in the acquittal of Maryam and Safdar, the court observed that NAB lacked doc-umentary evidence to substantiate the case against Nawaz Sharif, adding that the acquittal of Maryam Nawaz and Captain Safdar has not been contested.
The order further noted that the court approves the appeal against Sharif’s sentence, ordering his ac-quittal. A detailed decision outlining the reasons for the acquittal will be issued at a later date. –Agencies
