Thursday, March 28, 2024

Reply sought from NAB on exemption plea of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz

Reply sought from NAB on exemption plea of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz
November 22, 2017
ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The accountability court has sought a reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a plea, filed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, seeking exemption from appearance in court. The court has again summoned Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Capt (retd) Safdar. Despite getting exemption for a week, Nawaz Sharif again appeared in court and filed a petition to change its dates۔ During the proceedings, four more witnesses recorded their statements after two witnesses recorded their statements at the last hearing and were cross-examined. Khawaja Harris, the counsel of the former premier cross-examined three witnesses. The NAB Deputy prosecutor and the counsel of Nawaz Sharif also exchanged hot words. On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz again submitted an application in the court seeking exemption from appearing before the court. Maryam Nawaz in her application sought exemption from court appearance from December 5, 2017 to January 5, 2018, while the former PM also sought from the court exemption from appearance from December 5-12. The court was yet to give verdict on the applications. Earlier, the accountability court Judge Muhammad Bashir granted a week’s exemption to Nawaz Sharif from personal appearance, which would lapse on November 27. The court granted a month’s exemption to Maryam from personal appearance. Both of them had sought exemption on the account of the health of Kulsoom Nawaz, who was undergoing treatment of lymphoma at a medical facility in London. The court declared sons of ousted premier Hussain and Hasan Nawaz “proclaimed offenders” due to their continuous absence. The court initiated the formal trial of all the three accused by recording the statements of first two prosecution witnesses produced by the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) prosecutor. Previously, the accountability court (AC) had again indicted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after rejecting his petition seeking to club three corruption references into one. The judge called Nawaz Sharif to the rostrum after which his indictment was read out. The former PM denied all the charges and said that he is being targeted political revenge. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed three cases of corruption and money laundering against Sharif, his family members and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the Islamabad Accountability Court following the verdict. The anti-graft body NAB had frozen the bank accounts and seized properties of Sharif and his family members to put pressure on them to appear before the court. The Sharifs have denied any wrongdoing and have labelled the corruption proceedings against them as politically motivated. Two of Nawaz’s sons are also due to appear before the NAB court, along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Nawaz was disqualified by the Supreme Court in July for not declaring a source of income that he disputes receiving. Pakistan’s top court also ordered a wide-ranging NAB investigation and trial into Sharif family members. The Supreme Court specified that the trial be concluded within six months by NAB, which has in the past been derided as toothless because rich and powerful politicians were seldom convicted.