ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Tuesday rejected Sharif familyobjection to the National Accountability Court (NAB) supplementaryreference in the Avenfield case.
The Accountability court resumed hearing the corruption references againstformer premier Nawaz Sharif and his family.
NAB had filed three corruption references against the Sharif family inSeptember last year in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in thePanama Papers case.
The references against the Sharif family pertain to the Al-Azizia SteelMills, offshore companies including Flagship Investment Ltd, and Avenfieldproperties of London.
Nawaz, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar reached theFederal Judicial Complex from the Punjab House to appear beforeAccountability Court-I Judge Mohammad Bashir.
As the hearing went under way, Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Harris objected toNAB’s filing of a supplementary reference in the Avenfield case, arguingthat there is nothing new in the supplementary reference.He pleaded the court not to accept the supplementary reference as it is notper the Supreme Court’s directives.
The court then reserved its verdict on the suspects’ pleas. Announcing itsverdict later, the judge rejected the plea and accepted the supplementaryreference.
All the witnesses were issued notices to appear before the court to recordtheir statements. NAB pleaded the court to allow the UK-based witnesses torecord their statements via video link.The hearing was then adjourned until February 2.
During the hearing of the Al Azizia reference, Foreign Office’s Afaq Ahmadrecorded his statement and was also cross-examined by the suspects’counsels.
Speaking to the media outside the courtroom before the judge had announcedhis decision on their plea, Nawaz said the reason for so many cases againsthim is in front of everyone.
“These days cases against me are in the accountability court, high courtand Supreme Court,” he added.
Maryam’s counsel Amjad Pervez also addressed the media and said there is nonew evidence or witness in the supplementary reference, adding that olddocuments have been attached in the new sub-reference.
Nawaz is accused in all three cases whereas Maryam and Safdar are accusedin the Avenfield reference only.
All three have been indicted in the cases, with Nawaz’s sons Hussain andHasan declared proclaimed offenders due to their continuous no-show.
The two are accused in all three references.