ISLAMABAD - Islamabad High Court (IHC) is most likely to resume hearing of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif’s appeals against his conviction in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption references on Monday (today).
A two-member bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb will conduct hearing of the appeals wherein it had previously directed counsels of Sharif to present their arguments on his appeal in the Avenfield reference.
On the last hearing, Azam Naseer Tarar the lawyer of Nawaz Sharif informed the bench that they had developed a sequence for the hearing. He added that they had planned to give arguments for the appeal filed against the Avenfield reference first. At this, Justice Aamer asked from the counsel that how much time they would require to present his arguments. Amjad Pervez another member of Nawaz’s legal team told the court that a decision on the Avenfield reference has been made on merit. While Tarar added that the decision pertaining to the acquittal of the co-accused is final, as it was not challenged in the Supreme Court. The IHC CJ remarked that all that happened in the Al-Azizia appeal regarding the suspension of the sentence. He added arguments on merit were never heard in the case. Further, the judge asked Pervez about how many hours, and not days, would be required for arguments. The lawyer responded saying that he needed four to six hours. The judge said that in the Al-Azizia reference, the appeal was not heard by both the members of the bench. He told the lawyer to forget about Al-Azizia case for now and only present arguments on Avenfield case. Nawaz’s counsel said that the NAB had failed to provide any evidence. He requested the court to conduct hearing of the appeal, if necessary, on a daily basis.