National News

ISLAMABAD, (MILLAT ONLINE):Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved judgment in a plea moved by Former Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to stop the indictment proceedings against him in the accountability court.
A two judge bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani reserved judgment on maintainability of the case when litigants completed their arguments.
During the course of proceedings, Azam Nazir Tarar counsel for the petitioner apprised the bench that accountability court dismissed application of his client for framing a joint charge sheet in three references which was violation of fundamental right provided to Mr. Nawaz under Article , 4, 9, 10-A and 25 constitution of Pakistan.
Tarar argued that there was no precedent in NAB history to file different references on same charges and to support his argument he cited Sindh High Court’s decision in which it had clubbed 49 references in connection with NATO Containers.
He pleaded that Supreme Court in its judgment in Panama Papers case did not direct the NAB authorities to file three different references.
He said that each of the three references were supplemented by the same nine volumes constituting the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report, while six out of the nine witnesses in Reference No. 18/2017 were the same as six of the thirteen cited in Reference No. 19/2017 and two out of ten witnesses in Reference No. 20/2017 were common to Reference Nos. 18/2017 and 20/2017.
The allegations as per the Investigation Reports framing the basis of the References, the petitioner’s defense vis-a-vis the allegations in each of the three References was substantially the same, Khawaja added.
Under such circumstances it was evident that only one Reference could be brought against the petitioner on basis of the allegations made in each of the aforenoted three References and Mr. Nawaz could only be tried once on the basis of the said allegations.
He alleged that order of the accountability court was based on gross mis-reading, non-reading of facts and mis-construction of law on which it was purportedly based.
He added that the alleged impugned order passed by the accountability court on October 19 had been passed in unholy hast and without adverting to law and was liable to be set aside.
The counsel requested the court to declare the accountability court’s decision illegal and sought direction for the trial court to combine three references against him into one adding that there should be one trial on one charge instead of separate cases.
He also requested the court to halt the accountability court proceedings of the three references until a single reference would be filed adding that petitioner had no other adequate alternative remedy avaialble to his client.
Sardar Muzafar Abbassi, Deputy Prosecutor National Accountability Bureau (NAB) objected and said that references were filed following the Supreme Court directions as apex court directed NAB to file references instead of filing a single reference adding that there were no connection of three references with each other as each one based on different grounds and conditions.
NAB prosecutor pleaded that review petition of Mr. Nawaz before apex court had already been dismissed and charge sheet also be framed so the instant petition liable to be dismissed.
Subsequently, the bench after going through the arguments reserved judgment which might be possible to announce on same day.
It is pertinent to mention here that the accountability court is hearing corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau against Nawaz and his family members, as well as Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, in light of the Supreme Court’s order in the Panama Papers case.
Former Prime Minister approached IHC through his duly authorized attorney Asif Saeed Kirmani and a legal team challenged charge sheet framed by the accountability court on October 19 in the Avenfield properties and Azizia Steel Mills references. The third and last charge sheet was framed in Flagship Investment Ltd on October 20.