Pak court has a month to conclude cases against Sharif family

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has given the court hearing corruption cases against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family a month to conclude the trials.

During the hearing of an application seeking a third extension for concluding the trials, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar rejected the plea filed by Sharif’s counsel to complete the trial in six weeks.

He instead asked the accountability court to conclude the trials within one month by fixing daily hearings, including on Saturdays.

However, the Supreme Court also granted Sharif and daughter Maryam Nawaz permission to visit the former premier’s ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment in London.

In his statement, Sharif said he fears that the courts will have him put in jail ahead of the July general elections.

A special bench, comprising Nisar and justice Ijazul Ahsan, is set to hear the application filed by accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir after the deadline for concluding proceedings in the graft cases lapsed on Saturday.

Once the statements in the cases are recorded, defence counsel Khawaja Haris would cross-examine the witnesses. Subsequently, t he accused standing trial would record their statement in the cases and produce witnesses in defence, if needed, and after that, the national accountability bureau and the defence counsel will present arguments in the cases.