Arrest warrant for Nawaz in graft cases
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani anti-graft court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif with reference to two corruption cases triggered by the Panama Papers leak.
The court turned down his counsel’s request to exempt the former premier from appearing before it.
In the application seeking exemption from personal hearing, Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris said his client was unable to return to Pakistan because his wife’s medical condition had deteriorated.
Haris said Sharif was set to leave for Pakistan from Saudi Arabia when he learnt that his wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who is being treated for cancer in London, was being readmitted to hospital and needed his support and presence for at least a few days.
Under these circumstances, the counsel said “the applicant has been constrained to stay back to perform Umrah in the name of his ailing wife and pray for her recovery before leaving Saudi Arabia for London to be with his wife at this critical stage of her treatment.”
However, the deputy prosecutor general of the National Accountability Bureau opposed the application, accusing Sharif of “delaying tactics” and pointing out that the court had already granted the former premier a 15-day exemption that had expired on October 24.
The court has adjourned hearing in all three cases till November 3.