Supreme Court summons Nawaz Sharif on June 18
Former premier Nawaz Sharif has been summoned on June 18 by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) in a case pertaining to alleged illegal allotment of Waqf property attached to the shrine of Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Masud Ganj Shakar in Pakpattan Sharif.
In this regard, a notice has been issued by the court for fixing the hearing, according to which Mr Sharif either has to appear personally or must be represented by his defense counsel in the case.
The notice further read that the relevant documents must be submitted by the due date, and no postponement shall be given in that purpose.
It is pertinent here to mention that during the previous hearing, the court had ordered all concerned parties to submit their response on a report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
In February, Mr Sharif requested the SCP to reject the report filed by the JIT against him in the case.
In January, the JIT had filed its report in which it had recommended initiation of criminal proceedings against several individuals, including the then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif for withdrawing a Dec 17, 1969 notification and allotting the huge land of Auqaf around Pakpattan to Dewan Ghulam Qutab in 1986, allegedly in violation of a Lahore High Court (LHC) order.
Meanwhile, an investigation team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday has arrived in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore - where former premier Nawaz Sharif has been serving a seven-year sentence awarded to him in the AlAzizia Steel Mills reference case - to interrogate him in a case of an alleged import of 34 bulletproof vehicles from Germany without payment of customs duty on any of them in the year 2016.
The team will record his statement in the case. On May 21, an accountability court in Islamabad gave the green-light to the accountability watchdog to put questions to Mr Sharif over accusations that 20 of the total 34 vehicles were used for the protocol of Sharif family, imported ahead of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit 2016, which were to be used by diplomats.
It is pertinent to mention that the NAB had already grilled former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ex-premier's former principal secretary Fawad Hasan Fawad and former foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry.