Two references against Sharifs returned

Accountability court directs NAB to correct and re-file documents by Thursday

ISLAMABAD: A top official at a local accountability court returned on Monday two references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against deposed premier Nawaz Sharif and his children and directed the graft buster to re-submit them by September 14.

The move came as Sharif’s children moved an application in the Supreme Court seeking postponement of the hearing of their review petitions, which was scheduled for Tuesday (today).



Accountability court registrar Ahmed Mushtaq Qureshi returned the references, which pertained to the Sharifs’ Avenfield apartments and Flagship Investments, as Judge Muhammad Bashir directed him to complete scrutiny of the references and put them up before the court on September 14.

Qureshi said on Monday that the scrutiny of the references was under way and that several technical issues emerged during the process. He explained that many pages were not numbered or incorrectly numbered and a few documents were not attached despite being mentioned in the index.

While returning the references, the registrar directed NAB to rectify the errors and re-submit the references by Thursday. Officials at the Registrar Office said some 8,000 pages had so far been vetted, and that the two other references were also being scrutinised.

Meanwhile, NAB submitted four sets of copies along with the Avenfield flats reference. But since the Registrar Office has returned the reference, NAB is expected to submit the documents along with the resubmission of the references in a couple of days.



Last week, NAB filed four corruption references in the accountability court against Sharif, his sons Hussain Nawaz and Hasan Nawaz, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retd) Safdar as well as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in line with the July 28 judgment of the Supreme Court in the Panamagate case.

NAB has stated that the references should be treated as interim references and it could file supplementary references later on. NAB said the accused had been given ample opportunities to explain and provide evidence regarding the accumulation of these assets but “they did not join investigation before NAB on the pretext of a review petition already filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against July 28 verdict”.



Adjournment sought

The Sharif family had moved two separate review petitions, challenging decisions given by a five-member bench and the other by a three-member bench of the apex court. The hearing of the petitions was set for on Tuesday (today) by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan.

However, Sharif’s children on Monday requested for the postponement of the hearing. On Saturday, Sharif had moved an application, requesting the court to fix the review petitions before a larger bench first.

The family requested the court that the hearing of the review petitions against the decision of the three-judge bench be postponed until after the hearing of their other review petitions against the decision of the five-judge larger bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.