Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif walks with party workers and police officials while leaving after appearing at the Islamabad High Court on October 24, 2023. – Reuters
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reinstated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif’s plea seeking resumption of appeal against the conviction verdict of accountability courts in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases. Gave.
Thrice-ousted Prime Minister Nawaz personally appeared before the IHC division bench – led by Chief Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb – which heard his plea against the sentence awarded to him in two corruption cases.
The capital’s High Court had granted protective bail to the PML-N supremo on October 19, allowing him to return to the country safely and appear in court on October 24.
Then, on October 24, after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that it had no objection to the petitions filed by Nawaz, the three-time ousted prime minister’s bail in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases was extended till October 26. Was.
The ousted prime minister was given a 10-year prison sentence in the Avenfield property corruption context in July 2018 for having assets disproportionate to his known income and a year for not cooperating with the anti-graft watchdog – both The punishments were to be given simultaneously.
Nawaz was sentenced to seven years in prison on December 24, 2018, in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case and was then taken to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, from where he was shifted to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail the next day.
The elder Sharif was released from jail in March 2019 and traveled to London for medical treatment in November 2019 after permission from the Lahore High Court. Later, the IHC declared him a fugitive offender in both the cases in December 2020.
But last week, protective bail granted by the IHC in both the corruption cases paved the way for Nawaz’s smooth return to the country on October 21, ending four years of exile.
More to follow…
