ISLAMABAD – The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gives yet another blowto the former PM Nawaz Sharif.
NAB has challenged the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order regarding thetransfer of Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references against formerprime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family to another court.
On August 7, a two-member bench of the IHC, comprising Justice Aamer Farooqand Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, ordered transfer of the cases fromthe court of Accountability Judge-I Mohammad Bashir to Accountability CourtII, Arshad Malik.
The accountability watchdog has moved the Supreme Court against the IHC’sdecision, making the former premier and Judge Mohammad Bashir respondentsin the appeal.
In its petition filed on Saturday, NAB has stated that after the judgmentin Avenfield reference, the two remaining cases were under trial.
IHC’s order for transfer of the remaining two cases cannot be maintained,it pleaded.
NAB is an affected party of IHC’s decision and Judge Muhammad Bashir shouldbe allowed to continue hearing the two remaining two cases against Nawazand his family, the petition further said.
An accountability court had sentenced Nawaz to a total of 11 years inprison and slapped a £8 million fine (Rs1.3 billion) in the corruptionreference in July. The references were filed by NAB in line with PanamaPapers verdict.
Nawaz’ daughter Maryam was sentenced to eight years with a £2 million fine(Rs335 million) while Nawaz’s son-in-law Capt (retd) Safdar was also givena one-year sentence without any fine.