Islamabad High Court has reserved judgment on maintainability of appeal filed by Nawaz Sharif challenging the Al Azizia reference verdict of Accountability Court, Islamabad.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamir Farooq heard the case in Islamabad on Monday.
Nawaz Sharif`s counsel Khawaja Haris appeared before the court and pleaded for grant of bail to Nawaz Sharif till the decision on appeal.
In the application, he claimed that the accountability court’s judgement was based on ‘misunderstanding’ and ‘misinterpretation of the law’, and the evidences were addressed inappropriately.
The application further remarked that the grievances of the accused were not heard and addressed. Furthermore, he has requested the court for a bail until the application of suspension is not heard.
The Accountability Court on December 24 convicted Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference and sentenced him to seven years in prison, and acquitted him in the Flagship reference case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Mega corruption scandal.
In the 131-page judgement, written by the Accountability Court judge Arshad Malik, reasons of his conviction were mentioned. It said that the prosecution has successfully established all the ingredients of the offence of corruption committed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and that he has failed to provide legal money trail of his assets.
Later, Sharif was arrested from the premises of the Accountability Court. After spending a night at the Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, he was shifted to the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.