IHC to begin hearing arguments on Nawaz’s appeals in Al-Azizia, Avenfield references from Nov 27 – Pakistan

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday stated it could begin hearing arguments on PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s appeals towards his conviction in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia references from November 27 (Monday).

The determination was taken by an IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurang­zeb.

In July 2018, and because the then prime minister, Nawaz was handed 10 years in jail in the Avenfield properties corruption reference for proudly owning property past recognized revenue and one yr for not cooperating with the National Accountability Bureau, each of which have been to be served concurrently.

The Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference pertains to the case in which he was sentenced to seven years in jail on Dec 24, 2018. He was additionally fined Rs1.5 billion and US$25 million.

Nawaz was launched from jail in March 2019, following which he left for London in November 2019 after the LHC allowed him to achieve this on medical grounds. The IHC had declared him a proclaimed offender in each instances in December 2020.

Nawaz then remained in London for almost 4 years and solely returned to the nation final month. After his return from the UK, the PML-N chief had filed two separate purposes for restoration of appeals towards his conviction in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia references.

He had contended that whereas he was overseas for medical therapy, the pen­­ding appeals have been dismissed for non-prosecution. The purposes req­u­ested the court docket to revive the pending appeals for a choice on them on benefit.

Last month, the court docket had restored the appeals.

Ahead of the hearing right this moment, Nawaz arrived in court docket amid tight safety. He was accompanied by brother Shehbaz Sharif and an entourage comprising senior PML-N leaders, together with Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Ishaq Dar, Ayaz Sadiq and others.

As the proceedings commenced, Azam Nazir (*27*), Nawaz’s lawyer, stated his shopper wished to current arguments on the enchantment towards conviction in the Avenfield reference right this moment.

How a lot time would you want to current the arguments, Justice Farooq requested, to which (*27*) replied he would want 4 to six hours.

The decide additionally requested the NAB prosecutor the identical query. In his response, the latter stated he would want roughly half an hour. “Does this imply that NAB doesn’t need to say something?” Justice Farooq requested.

The IHC CJ then said that the court docket would begin hearing Nawaz’s arguments on Monday (Nov 27), 12:30pm.

Here, (*27*) urged the bench to hear the appeals on a every day foundation because the instances dated again to 2018 and 2019. He additional promised that he wouldn’t waste the court docket’s time.

“If want be, we’ll hear the case on a every day foundation,” Justice Farooq stated, including that common division bench proceedings might be referred to as off on the day of the hearing.

The decide additionally directed Advocate Amjaz Parvez to current arguments on Nawaz’s behalf and instructed him to put together a abstract of the case.

The hearing was subsequently adjourned until Monday.