Al-Azizia, Flagship cases against Sharif family adjourned till 30th

ISLAMABAD:  Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of Al-Azizia/ Hill Metal Establishment and Flagship references against former premier Nawaz Sharif and members of his family till July 30. 

The judge, who convicted the ex-PM, his daughter and son-in-law in the Avenfield reference, has already recused himself from hearing the references after the convicts requested the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to transfer both the pending cases against them to another court.

When asked about the Sharif family’s application with regard to transfer of the cases, Khawaja Haris said it has returned to the accountability judge after going through different forums and that there is no stay order against hearing the cases.

NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar said the trial court lacked powers to transfer the cases and asked it to proceed with the matter since there was no legal bar on its hearing the cases.

A day earlier, the IHC bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kyani and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb adjourned the petition filed by the Sharifs seeking to transfer the cases to another accountability judge.

It issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor to submit a response on the matter in the last week of July.

The bench turned down a request by the petitioners’ counsel to grant a stay order, restraining the trial court from proceeding with these cases until its decision on the petition.

Haris urged the IHC to transfer the two pending references against his clients to another accountability judge since the arguments in both cases were similar to the ones in the Avenfield case.

The same judge could hand down a similar verdict in the two references since evidences in both cases were the same, he argued.