Islamabad: Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law were indicted on Thursday by an anti-graft court in a corruption case related to the Avenfield property in London. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had registered three cases of corruption and money laundering against 67- year-old Sharif, his family members and finance minister Ishaq Dar in the accountability court in Islamabad on September 8. The cases were registered weeks after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif as prime minister on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal.
The accountability court indicted Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retd) Mohammad Safdar in the London properties reference even though Sharif and lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris are both out of the country. Sharif is in London with his ailing wife Kulsoom, who is suffering from throat cancer and has undergone three surgeries so far. Maryam and Safdar were present in the court during today's hearing. All three accused pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to a court official.
Dar has already been indicted and his trial has begun. Sharif and his sons — Hassan and Hussain — are likely to be indicted in the other two references later on Thursday. At the start of the hearing by Judge Muhammad Bashir, the defence filed application to postpone the indictment as Sharif was absent due to illness of his wife. The defence team also argued that head of Sharif’s legal team Harris was out of country due to an emergency and in his absence Sharif should not be indicted.
But the court rejected the application after hearing the argument. The second lawyer from Sharif’s legal team, Ayesha Hamid, filed an application seeking a delay in the indictment until the apex court decides on a petition filed by Sharif against the filing of multiple corruption references against him by NAB. The court rejected this application as well. Sharif's legal team then filed a third application in the accountability court and asked that all three cases should be changed into a single case. The court has reserved its decision on the application.
During the proceedings, the judge thrice stopped hearing and went to his chamber to contemplate on the different applications. Sharif’s family alleges that the cases are politically motivated. Maryam, in informal chat with reporters, said that it was for the first time that “Sicilian mafia” was appearing in the court. She was referring to a term used against Sharif and his family by the Supreme Court bench which disqualified him.
