Al-Azizia reference: Judge refuses plea to postpone hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court-II hearing Al-Azizia reference against Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday rejected a postponement plea by the defence counsel.

The legal assistant of Nawaz Sharif’s defence counsel appeared before the court and requested that Khawaja Haris was unable to attend the hearing as he had to attend the Islamabad High Court hearing on their petitions seeking suspension of the Avenfield verdict. Judge Arshad Malik remarked that the Supreme Court has ordered the closure of the references within six weeks.

The legal assistant told the judge that the IHC had fixed Tuesday and Wednesday for the hearing, and so Haris could not appear before him. He further told him that the IHC was hearing petitions against the Avenfield verdict on a daily basis. The judge noted that he was also hearing corruption references on a daily basis. The NAB Prosecutor General, Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, said their witness Wajid Zia was present for cross-examination. The judge refused the request to postpone the hearing till Thursday.

Meanwhile, Khawaja Haris appeared before the division bench of Islamabad High Court in petitions challenging the Sharif family's conviction in the Avenfield properties reference. The bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the petition seeking suspension of the sentence. Haris produced some judgments of the Supreme Court in support of his petition. He will continue his arguments on Wednesday (today). After that Special Prosecutor of NAB Akram Qureshi will have two days to conclude his arguments