ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and her spouse Captain (r) Safdar on Thursday have appeared before an accountability court here for the corruption proceedings against the Sharif family.
Three references have been filed against the Sharif family members by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in compliance with the Supreme Court’s landmark July 28 verdict.
Maryam Nawaz arrived at the court amid tight security and extensive protocol for the hearing of a corruption reference. She was accompanied by ministers and senior PML-N leaders.
Subsequently, Maryam’s spouse and Sharif’s son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar reached the court premises separately.
The NAB court is expected to indict Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar in three graft references.
Former PM Sharif is currently in London and would be skipping the graft proceedings today, besides Sharif family’s lead counsel Khawaja Harris is also out of the country.
At the outset, one of the Sharif family’s counsels Advocate Amjad Pervaiz pleaded that his clients could not indicted in the references until they were not furnished with complete documents of the case, specifically the ‘Volume X’ of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report.
The NAB prosecutor categorically opposed the plea.
After the submission of the plea, Judge Muhammad Bashir halted the proceedings for 15 minutes. The judge is expected to announce a decision on the plea after the hearing resumes.
After a brief recess, the judge has resumed the hearing.
One more plea has been filed by Sharif family’s another lawyer Ayesha Hamid, pleading that the court should halt proceedings until the Supreme Court decides on Nawaz’s plea for NAB to consolidate all references.
The NAB court reserved a verdict on pleas that were filed through Sharif family’s legal team after the defendants’ counsel and prosecutor concluded their arguments.
The court dismissed two pleas filed by the Sharif family with regard to defer indictment and suspension of graft proceedings.
