ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam were exempted on Tuesdayfrom attending the corruption hearings against them for four days. Theformer premier and his daughter are in London to tend to Nawaz’s wife BegumKulsoom who is under treatment there.
As Accountability Court Judge Mohammad Bashir started hearing the threeNational Accountability Bureau (NAB) references against the Sharif family,the counsels of Nawaz and Maryam submitted appearance exemption requests oftheir clients for a week.
The court, however, accepted the plea for four days only and adjourned thehearing of the Avenfield case until tomorrow.
Khawaja Haris, the chief counsel in the three corruption cases againstNawaz, resumed his role as lead counsel on Tuesday after previouslyrecusing himself from the case.
As the hearing started today, the judge inquired from Haris if he was incourt to withdraw his request ending his power of attorney for Nawaz.
“First, I have to file another petition. I have a right to know whether thecourt will hear the three cases simultaneously or separately,” Harisresponded.
To this, the accountability court judge said Haris’ request last week towithdraw the power of attorney was never accepted in the first place.
However, NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi pointed out, “We did noteven object and the request was dismissed.”
Haris then requested the prosecution “to coordinate with each other and tryour best to not pull each other’s legs”.