ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Thursday indicted Pakistan Muslim League (PMLN) leader Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Captain (retd) Safdar in graft cases, dismissing former prime minister's plea to suspend the proceedings against them.
The members of the Sharif family were indicted in a corruption reference related to London flats, according to Geo News.
The references were filed by the National Accountability Court in the light of Supreme Court orders in Panama Papers case.
The Supreme Court sent Sharif packing on July 28 and ordered the anti-graft watchdog to filed references against the Sharif family.
The apex court also assigned a supervisory role to a Supreme Court judge to monitor the proceedings against Sharif family members.
Maryam and her husband Safdar pleaded not guilty as Judge Bashir Ahmed read out charges against the three accused.
Nawaz Sharif was absent from the hearing due to his presence in London where his wife is undergoing treatment for cancer.
During the hearing, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif filed an application in the accountability court seeking to halt the proceedings in the graft references until the Supreme Court’s verdict in his earlier plea challenging the filing of multiple corruption references against him by the National Accountability Bureau.
Nawaz’s second lawyer Ayesha Hamid pleaded the court to halt the indictment process as a plea had already been filed in the Supreme Court to order NAB to file one consolidated reference instead of three separate cases.
Maryam Nawaz and her spouse Capt (retd) Safdar's counsel, Amjad Pervez, also argued before the judge that his clients were not provided with the complete documents of the case and thus the indictment process should be halted.
Earlier last week, the former premier had challenged the filing of multiple corruption references against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Supreme Court.
The petition, filed by Advocate Muhammad Kassim Mir Jat on behalf of Nawaz Sharif, requested the apex court to order the accountability court to file one consolidated reference.
The filing of three separate references is "illegal, and in violation of law and the Constitution", the petition said.
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