Court suspends perpetual arrest warrants for Nawaz’s sons

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, Islamabad, suspended the perpetual arrest warrants for Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, sons of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and granted them bail in the Al-Azizia, Flagship and Avenfield cases here on Thursday.

Hassan and Hussain were named as accused along with Nawaz, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Avenfield case reference. The accountability court had ordered Hassan and Hussain to appear in court multiple times during the trial. Later, it declared them proclaimed offenders and issued their permanent arrest warrants due to their non-appearance.

The two appeared before accountability court judge Nasir Javed Rana and marked their attendance. The court also sought a record from NAB on cases pending against the two. The counsel for the younger Sharifs requested the court to hear the case on March 15.

Upon petitions filed by Nawaz’s sons for acquittal, the accountability court issued a notice to NAB. Whereas lawyer Misbah filed a petition for appointment of his clients’ pleader saying the petition regarding the pleader was being lodged for security reasons. Rana Irfan was appointed as their pleader. Presenting arguments, Misbah said he had pleaded to suspend his clients’ perpetual arrest warrants on previous hearing. Since the suspects had surrendered themselves as per the court’s condition, their warrants should be cancelled, he said.

The judge inquired if Hasan and Hussain were nominated in the three references. The counsel replied in affirmative saying they were nominated in the cases as co-accused. He added the trial court had vindicated them in the Flagship reference. While, he said, all the accused were acquitted by the high court in the Al-Azizia and Avenfield references with the exception of his clients, who weren’t able to appear before the court. The judge asked if the suspects would leave the country soon. The lawyer said for the time being they were in the country. During their plea’s March 7 hearing, Misbah had said there were five accused in the Avenfield reference and the Islamabad High Court acquitted three of them.

NAB prosecutor Arif said the purpose of the warrants was to bring the accused to court, insisting that both brothers should be given a chance to appear before the accountability court. The court directed Hassan and Hussain to submit surety bonds worth Rs50,000 each and adjourned the hearing till Friday (today).

Speaking to the media after the court appearance, Hussain said the saga of political revenge against them started on October 12 and lamented that he was arrested from the Prime Minister’s House and imprisoned for several months. “There have been many changes in NAB,” he added.

In response to a journalist’s question about a fair trial for PTI founder Imran Khan, Hussain said everyone has the right to a fair trial. Hussain said he was a Pakistani citizen and never refused to accept it. The brothers, who had been declared absconders in the NAB cases returned to Pakistan on March 12 after seven years following the suspension of their arrest warrants by an accountability court.