*ISLAMABAD: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter MaryamNawaz have decided to approach the Islamabad High Court challenging theirconviction at the hands of an accountability court in the Avenfieldproperties reference.*
The former premier on Saturday discussed with his legal team the legalrecourse after the conviction via telephone from the British capital.
Sources privy to this development quoted lawyers as suggesting that Sharifand his daughter should return within a period of ten days as it will bedifficult for them to get relief from courts if they don’t return.
Besides, Captain (retd) Safdar, who is in Islamabad, is said to have madeup his mind to surrender on Monday.
On Friday, the PML-N supreme leader was awarded 10 years in prison, whilehis daughter Maryam Nawaz and her spouse were handed out seven years’ andone year’s prison term, respectively.
Judge Muhammad Bashir ordered forfeiture of their properties in theAvenfield Apartments and Park Lane of London. He imposed a fine of £8million (approximately Rs1,292m) on the former premier and £2 million(approximately Rs323m) on his daughter.
Besides, three convicts were handed out an additional one-yearimprisonment, which will run concurrently for not cooperating with theNational Accountability Bureau (NAB).
According to the verdict, the prosecution failed to establish the charge ofcorrupt practices against them.