Avenfield, Al-Azizia cases: IHC to hear Nawaz’s appeals on 21st

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has fixed the hearing on appeals against the conviction of Pakistan Muslim League-N leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Avenfield Apartment and Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption references on November 21.

A two-member division bench, comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, will conduct the hearing. According to the cause list issued by the court’s registrar office, the appeals are set to be heard on November 21.

Earlier, the appeals were dismissed by the same court after the former PM travelled abroad on account of seeking medical treatment. Sharif returned to the country recently after obtaining protective bail in the cases. He surrendered before the court, after which his appeals were restored. The National Accountability Bureau also raised no objection to granting bail to the PML-N leader and reinstation of his appeals.

Sharif was sentenced to seven and 10 years in prison by an Islamabad accountability court in the Al-Azizia and Avenfield references, respectively, in 2018. In his appeals, he requested the IHC to set aside the trial court’s decisions. His daughter Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (retd) Safdar, who were convicted as co-accused, already have been acquitted by the appellate court.