IHC fixes hearing of appeal filed against Nawaz’s conviction in Al-Azizia reference

Final hearing will be on September 18

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday fixed the hearing for an appeal filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's conviction in Al-Azizia reference for September 1.

Meanwhile, the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) appeal against the former premier’s sentence extension and acquittal in the Flagship Investment reference had also been fixed for hearing.

The court would conduct the final hearing in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference on September 18.

A special bench of the IHC had been constituted to hear the appeals of Nawaz and NAB which include Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani.

Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik had pronounced the verdicts of Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship references. The judge was later sacked following a video scandal in which he could be seen confessing that he had been blackmailed into convicting Nawaz.

On August 22, Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz said that the government would use the legal process to bring former prime minister Nawaz Sharif back to the country and warned that Prime Minister Imran Khan would not succumb to political blackmailing by the opposition.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Faraz said that Nawaz Sharif was drinking coffee in London and doing politics, while at home, Maulana Fazlur Rehman was talking to Bilawal Bhutto but not with Shahbaz Sharif.

“We will use all legal means to bring Nawaz Sharif back. The government has decided to contact the British government through the Foreign Office to bring him back,” the minister told the press conference. “Nawaz Sharif should come back.”

He said that the court and the government allowed Nawaz to leave the country on humanitarian grounds. “Nawaz Sharif went to London under the pretext of treatment, but once there he did not go for even an X-ray. He made a mockery of the country’s laws under the pretext of his illness,” he added.