IHC constitutes bench to hear Sharifs’ appeals

ISLAMABAD — The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday constituted a new bench to hear petitions challenging the Sharif family’s conviction in the Avenfield properties reference.

Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mian Gull will start hearing the petitions on Monday.

Accountability court judge Mohammed Bashir had on July 6 convicted Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Capt. (retd) Safdar Awan in the Avenfield properties reference and sentenced them to 10 years, seven years and one year, respectively, in prison.

On July 16, the Sharifs and Capt. Safdar had filed appeals for the Avenfield verdict to be overturned. Their lawyers had also filed petitions that argued that until the IHC adjudicates on the appeals against the accountability court’s decision, the convicts should be released on bail.

In the appeals, counsel Khawaja Haris had argued that the prosecution must establish its case beyond a shadow of a doubt in order to shift the onus of proof on the accused, but in the Avenfield properties reference the prosecution failed to establish such a case.

Referring to a 2007 judgement of the Sindh High Court passed in the Hakim Ali Zardari case, Haris had explained that to establish its case, the prosecution was required to establish four points — (a) the accused was holder of public office, (b) nature and extent of pecuniary

resources or property which were found in his possession, (c) what were his known sources of income i.e. known to the prosecution after thorough investigation and (d) such resources or property found in possession of the accused were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

“There is no burden of proof on the accused when the prosecution can not prove these four ingredients,” the counsel insisted in the appeal.

The court had subsequently ordered that the appeal against the verdict be fixed for hearing in September. —