ISLAMABAD    -    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday granted PML-N’s Vice President Maryam Nawaz one time ex­emption from personal appearance in appeal against her conviction in Avenfield Property reference. A two-mem­ber bench of the IHC comprising Acting Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and Jus­tice Mohsin Akhtar Kay­ani conducted hearing of the appeals.

During the hearing, Maryam’s counsel sub­mitted an application praying the court to grant one-time exemp­tion to her from person­al appearance before the court on medical grounds. Similarly, the associate lawyer of PML-N’s leader request­ed the court to adjourn the hearing as Maryam Nawaz’s lawyer was un­able to attend hearing.

Accepting the pleas of Maryam’s counsel, the IHC bench deferred the hearing in this matter till September 15. Previ­ously, Maryam’s counsel Amjad Pervaiz Advocate continued his arguments and said that the trial court had testified eight witnesses on January 18, 2018. He also said that charges were not framed against all accused in­stead the NAB changed its case. He added that the NAB had not told that who was the real owner and who was ‘benamdar’ of the property in its orig­inal reference. But the bureau had claimed here that Nawaz Sharif was real owner of the prop­erty and it was on the name of Hussain Nawaz. The counsel contended that the NAB’s stance was changed in the supplementary refer­ence and the defense counsel objected on it and prayed the court during the trial to again frame charges against his client.