ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Thursday rejected the petition totransfer the Al-Azizia corruption reference against the Sharif family fromJudge Muhammad Bashir’s court.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members are facing threecorruption references in the accountability court — Avenfield Properties,Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investments — in which they are accusedof money laundering, tax evasion and hiding offshore assets.link>link>

The hearing went underway after Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Haris and theNational Accountability Bureau (NAB) Prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasiappeared in the accountability court.

The defence counsel asked for more time to present a copy of the apexcourt’s order for an extension in wrapping up the corruption referencesagainst Nawaz and former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

The hearing was then adjourned till 12pm.

As the court resumed the hearing, the NAB prosecutor said that the SupremeCourt’s extension order was yet to be received. To this, the judge askedwhat the apex court’s order entailed. Abbasi responded that a six-weekextension had been granted to the anti-graft body to wrap up the corruptionreferences. The judge remarked that it was yet to be seen what SupremeCourt order said.

Haris then requested the court to issue an order on the transfer request.Judge Bashir responded by saying that he did not have the mandate totransfer the reference after indictment. The defence then requested for thehearing to be adjourned till Tuesday so it could contact the relevantforum.