ISLAMABAD: The same division bench of the Islamabad High Court which had fined the National Accountability Bureau for not responding to the questions related to the Avenfield properties case on Thursday will continue to hear the petitions of the Sharifs seeking suspension of the accountability court verdict.

The IHC administration on Friday notified the same bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb for hearing the petitions next week.

An IHC official said Justice Aurangzeb would proceed on vacation after concluding the hearing of the petitions.

NAB officials say prosecution expected another IHC bench to hear arguments against suspension of Avenfield case verdict

NAB officials requesting anonymity said the prosecution had thought that the bench hearing the petitions would be dissolved on Friday and the petitions would be fixed before some other bench after the Eid holidays.

They said one of the prosecutors misguided the prosecutor general giving an impression that in case the same bench continued to hear the case, the prosecution might not succeed in establishing its case.

The bench was scheduled to conclude the hearing of the arguments on the petitions on Thursday when additional deputy prosecutor general (ADPG) Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi was supposed to respond to the questions the court had asked. However, Mr Abbasi expressed inability to advance arguments, citing that the NAB prosecutor general had instructed him to file paragraph-wise comments and requested the IHC to adjourn the hearing till next week.

Justice Minallah told the prosecution that one of the members of the division bench Justice Aurangzeb would not be available next week and repeatedly directed the NAB’s prosecutor to advance his arguments. However, when he failed to do so, the court imposed Rs10,000 fine on the prosecution and adjourned the hearing till Monday.

The bureau, which obtained a copy of the order on Friday, had also been directed to file its comments by Saturday (today).

In the July 6 verdict, Judge Mohammad Bashir of the accountability court awarded 10 years imprisonment to ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, seven years to his daughter Maryam Nawaz and one year imprisonment to his son-in-law retired captain Mohammad Safdar in the Avenfield properties reference.

The bench earlier asked NAB if the investigation officer had evaluated the price of London properties and compared it with known sources of income of the ousted prime minister.

The bench also asked the prosecution to apprise whether Maryam being dependent or benamidar of her father could be convicted under Section 9(a)(5) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) which related to the assets beyond means.

While reading out the accountability court’s verdict, the bench asked how she was convicted for abetting her father for accumulating the assets beyond means when the only evidence against her was a forged trust deed. The bench further asked NAB to also explain how the trust deed was declared forged and whether the Calibri font did not exist at the time the trust deed was prepared?

The court also raised similar questions regarding the conviction of retired Capt Safdar.

The prosecutor, however, did not answer any of these questions on Thursday and sought time till next week to file his comments.

The additional prosecutor general, Jahanzeb Bharwana, also gave an undertaking to the IHC bench that he would conclude arguments on Monday when it would resume the hearing.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2018