ISLAMABAD(Daily Parliament Times): The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday suspended the sentences handed to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar in the Avenfield corruption reference.
The court was hearing the appeals by the Sharifs and Capt Safdar against the verdict announced by the accountability court on July 6 and has accepted their petitions, suspending their sentences in the meantime. PML-N workers present in the courtroom started cheering as the IHC’s verdict was announced. It is pertinent to mention that the accountability court’s verdict stands; only the sentences of the three convicts have been suspended.
Following the suspension, Nawaz, Maryam and Capt Safdar will be released from jail after completion of formalities. It is unclear whether they would be released today or in a few days. All three have been ordered to pay Rs0.5 million as surety bonds.
Leader of the Opposition and Nawaz’s younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, following the verdict took to Twitter to share a verse from Surah Al-Isra [17:81]: “Truth has come, and falsehood has departed. Indeed is falsehood, [by nature], ever bound to depart.”
The accountability court on July 6 had announced the verdict in the Avenfield properties corruption reference filed by NAB, handing the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif 10 years as jail time for owning assets beyond known income and 1 year for not cooperating with NAB.
His daughter was given 7 years for abetment after she was found “instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father” and 1 year for non-cooperation with the bureau.
According to the verdict, she “aided, assisted, abetted, attempted and acted in conspiracy with her father”. “The trust deeds produced by the accused Maryam Nawaz were also found bogus,” the judgement had noted. Nawaz’s son-in-law was given 1 year jail time — for not cooperating with NAB, and aiding and abeting Nawaz and Maryam.
The National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) special prosecutor Mohammad Akram Qureshi concluded his final arguments Wednesday, following which the high court reserved the verdict in the case. Qureshi argued today that after the fixation of appeals against the conviction of the Sharif family in the Avenfield reference, the IHC could not have entertained petitions seeking suspension of sentence.
He further said that since Maryam had prepared a forged declaration of trust in order to rescue her father, “she was equally responsible as she connived to dodge the legal course”. When the court asked him if the forged documents had led to her conviction for owning assets beyond means, the prosecutor replied: “Maryam hatched the conspiracy.”
Qureshi further argued that Maryam was living with father as a dependent and so “the properties in her name presumably belonged to her father”.
Justice Athar Minallah remarked that “the NAB, after conducting thorough investigation, couldn’t bring any evidence of Nawaz Sharif’s ownership of the Avenfield apartments, but you want us to admit his ownership on mere presumption.”
Qureshi responded that the “law of evidence empowers the court to presume facts in certain situations.” The prosecutor was reminded that there is a room of giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused, and that the precedents of the apex court bound the bureau to follow certain procedures in order to shift the burden of proof on accused persons.
At this, Qureshi said that “since the properties belong to a foreign jurisdiction, therefore, it is a distinguished case and these were not applicable to this case”. Meanwhile, Khawaja Haris — the lead defence counsel — said that since the NAB law relates to foreign properties, the stance taken by NAB is without any legal force.
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