IHC to hear Nawaz’s conviction appeal

PML-N supremo has filed appeals against conviction in Avenfield, Al-Azizia cases

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court has scheduled the appeals filed by PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif against his conviction in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia references for hearing. According to the IHC registrar, Nawaz’s appeals will be heard on November 21. IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb will hear the appeals.

Last month, the IHC restored the PML-N supremo’s appeals against his conviction in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia references. The IHC revived his appeals against his 2018 convictions in two separate corruption cases after the top accountability watchdog informed the judges that it had no objection to the court hearing them.

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Nawaz was convicted in the Avenfield reference in July 2018 and the Al-Azizia case in December of the same year. He subsequently filed appeals against his convictions in the IHC. While the court was still in the process of hearing the appeals, the PML-N leader flew to London in November 2019 after receiving a rare permission for medical treatment abroad. As a result, an IHC bench led by Justice Farooq dismissed the appeals on June 24, 2021 because of the PML-N supremo’s failure to appear for the court hearings.

A day earlier, the IHC dismissed a long-standing contempt of court petition against Nawaz related to his anti-judiciary speeches in 2018.
The hearing was presided over by the IHC CJ and the plea was dismissed on the grounds of no representation on behalf of the petitioner during court proceedings.A citizen, Adnan Iqbal, had filed a contempt of court petition against Nawaz, seeking legal action for his statements made in 2018.
The petitioner claimed that the respondent had been scandalising the courts by uttering, issuing and broadcasting such statements ridiculing the judiciary. “Such instances not only bring the courts into hatred, ridicule and contempt but break the trust of the nation on one of the pillars of the state which is likely to cause riots and turmoil,” the petition read.

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Nawaz recently returned to the country after a four-year self-imposed exile. Last week, an accountability court directed authorities to return the confiscated assets and properties owned by the PML-N supremo in the Toshakhana case. He has been the prime minister three times but has never completed a full term. His last term ended when he was ousted in 2017 and given a lifetime disqualification from politics after being convicted of corruption in a case he says was politically motivated.