AC rejects Nawaz’s plea for cases transfer to another court

ISLAMABAD: Accountability Court-I Judge Muhammad Bashir Thursday rejected Nawaz Sharif counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmad’s appeal for transfer of the remaining two corruption references to another court saying it was not his but the high court’s mandate.

During the court proceedings, Haris told the judge that since the judgment in the Avenfield Apartments corruption case had disclosed his mind so the remaining two corruption references should be transferred to another court, as all the three cases, including Al-Azizia and Flagship, were quite similar to each other.

The judge told him that since his court had indicted the accused Mian Nawaz Sharif; therefore, it could not transfer this matter to another court for hearing. The AC-I had announced its judgment in the Avenfield Apartments corruption case on July 6 sentencing Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (R) Muhammad Safdar to jail and fine. The matter was fixed for Thursday for cross-examination of the JIT head Wajid Zia in Al-Azizia corruption reference.

After the judge rejected Nawaz Sharif’s application to fix the matter to some other court, Haris requested for an adjournment enabling him to challenge the order in the Islamabad High Court.

A NAB deputy prosecutor general (DPG) argued before the court that the remaining two cases could not be transferred to another accountability court, as the same court had indicted the accused and the proceedings in two other references were almost complete.