Sharif’s plea to club 3 graft cases dismissed
islamabad — The Islamabad High Court on Monday dismissed ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s plea to club three corruption cases against him.
A two-member bench issued a short order turning down his appeal and said that a detailed judgment would be issued later.
The cases were registered by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on September 8 against Sharif, his family in the Accountability Court Islamabad, following a verdict by Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case.
The accountability court in Islamabad had on November 8 rejected a plea by 67-year-old Sharif to club his cases, which he challenged in the Islamabad High Court.
The IHC had completed the hearing and reserved the judg- ment on November 23, which it announced on Monday. The three cases against the Sharif family are related to the Al Azizia Company and Hill Metal Establishment, Flagship Investment Ltd and the Avenfield (London) properties.
Earlier, the accountability court postponed hearing of graft cases against Sharif until this afternoon due to the expected verdict of the high court.
Sharif with his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Safdar appeared in the court.
His lawyer Khawaja Harris requested Judge Mohammad Bashir to suspend proceedings and wait for the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision on a petition by Sharif to club his three graft cases into one, as all were related to his alleged amassing of assets beyond the known sources of income. The court after hearing the argument from the NAB prosecutor postponed hearing till 1 pm and allowed Sharif to go home but ordered him to be present when the hearing would restart. — PTI