IHC seeks Sharif’s return on Sept 22

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) registrar office on Thursday wrote a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure the production of former premier Nawaz Sharif before the said court on September 22.

The assistant registrar, while sending Sharif’s non-bailable arrest warrants to the foreign secretary, asked the Foreign Office to implement the warrants through Pakistan High Commission in London, United Kingdom.

It asked the foreign secretary to ensure production of Sharif on September 22 and on other dates before the court.

The arrest warrants for Sharif had been dispatched at his London Park Lane residence, while a copy of court’s September 15 decision has also been sent to the Foreign Office.

Earlier this week, the IHC had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Sharif – for September 22 – in Al-Azizia case after the PML-N supremo failed to surrender to authorities on Tuesday.

The court also dismissed the PML-N leader’s three miscellaneous applications, requesting the court to forgo the requirement of his surrender; to allow him pursue the appeals against his conviction through a legal representative and to grant him exemption from court appearance.

Taking up Sharif’s appeal against his conviction in Al-Azizia reference on September 1, a special division bench of the IHC had directed the former prime minster to appear before the court on September 10 or face court proceedings to declare him an absconder.

On September 9, Sharif had filed an application in the court, requesting it to forgo its order of surrender and either to defer hearing of his appeals till his return to Pakistan or allow his representative counsel to appear on his behalf.

On September 10, the IHC bench decided to reconvene on September 15 [Tuesday] to hear arguments on whether Sharif’s appeal could be heard while he was declared an absconder by an accountability court in a gift repository case.

Resuming hearing of the case on Tuesday, a division bench of the IHC comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani observed that despite orders, the former premier had neither returned to Pakistan nor surrendered to authorities.

Referring to Pervez Musharraf’s case, Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris argued that the lawyer of former military dictator was allowed to appear before the court on his (Musharraf’s) behalf in a case pertaining to the former president’s assets.

 “Therefore, in exceptional circumstances, the accused's lawyer can be allowed to appear instead of the accused himself,” Haris argued.

“In a high-treason case, the special court had declared General Pervez Musharraf an absconder. Despite it, the Supreme Court heard his lawyer.”

He said a trial cannot be stopped on the basis of non-appearance of an accused.

“The court could appoint a public prosecutor for the accused and proceed with the trial.

“As of now, Nawaz Sharif cannot appear before the court," Sharif's counsel further stated.

Haris also referred to the Supreme Court’s Hayat Baksh case of 1981, stating that the apex court had formulated a procedure to declare an accused absconder.

The court, however, asked him to describe the unusual circumstances that he thought applied to Nawaz’s case. Haris said the SC heard the plea of a fugitive accused for various reasons.

The NAB prosecutor said Sharif was deliberately disobeying the court orders, and that the court had the power to reject the fugitive's appeal or to appoint a lawyer for him.

Former premier's counsel reiterated that his client was not a fugitive since he took permission from the government to go abroad.

The court remarked that the medical certificates provided were of a consultant and not a hospital. It is unfortunate that all parties in Nawaz Sharif's case have made the matter suspicious, the IHC observed.

On October 29, 2019, the IHC had granted 8-week bail to Sharif in Al-Azizia case in view of his deteriorating health condition and the special bench on September 1 noted that the former premier was not on bail now and, therefore, he must “surrender to the authorities before the next date of hearing”.

The PML-N leader has been in London since November 2019.