ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday rejected a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) plea blocking the Sharifs’ Avenfield verdict suspension pleas before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and fined the anti-graft watchdog Rs20,000.
In a separate development, an IHC bench hearing the Sharifs’ pleas expressed surprise over NAB challenging their September 10 order. Justice Athar Minallah said that NAB had placed no objection to the order. Now, however, it had challenged the same before the apex court.
NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi told the bench senior prosecutor Akram Qureshi and Jahanzeb Bharwana were at the SC for the hearing of the aforementioned petition. On Saturday, the NAB moved the top court against an IHC decision accepting Sharifs’ Avenfield verdict suspension pleas for hearing.
The NAB move may once again delay hearing of petitions by former premier Nawaz Sharif, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar seeking the July 6 verdict to be suspended. The top accountability body challenged the order and requested the apex court to not only set the order aside but also direct the appellate court to take up the appeals for hearing.
