ISLAMABAD: An accountability court of Islamabad may indicted Sharif family on Thursday in the London properties reference even though former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed are both out of the country.

Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir set to indict Mr Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Mohammad Safdar on Oct 13. However, after a violent clash between the lawyers with police for not permitting the former into the premises of the Federal Judicial Complex (FJC), the court deferred the indictment till Oct 19.

Since Mr Sharif and his lead defence counsel are abroad, the court may indict Mr Sharif through a pleader who is a junior lawyer in the defence team while the charges against Maryam and Safdar would be framed in person, a defence lawyer told Dawn. He said defence lawyers will assist the judge.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed are both out of the country

In case the accountability court indicts the accused persons, it would direct evidence from the prosecution and summon the witnesses to record the testimony, the lawyer added.

On Oct 9, Mr Ahmed, counsel of Mr Sharif and his daughter, applications seeking an exemption from personal attendance for Mr Sharif and another seeking a 15-day adjournment.

He told the court that the former primier was in London to tend to his ailing wife who was undergoing treatment for lymphoma. He said she was in critical condition and had not recovered despite a third surgery.

The ex-premier and his sons have been named in references related to the establishing of companies in the UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia. In the London properties reference, his daughter Maryam and Mr Safdar have also been implicated as accused persons. The reference is related to apartments in London in which NAB implicated Nawaz Sharif, Maryam, Hassan and Hussein Nawaz, as well as Mr Safdar as accused persons.

A five-member bench of the apex court on July 28 directed NAB to file references against Sharif and his children in six weeks in an accountability court and directed the trial court to decide the references in six months. SC also assigned Justice Ijazul Ahsan a supervisory role to monitor the accountability court’s progress.

The accountability court also issued directives for Thursday’s hearing. The court has asked for limited presence in the court premises to avoid a situation that emerged in the previous hearing where the lawyers associated with the PML-N protested in the courtroom.

The court directed the prosecution and defence teams, court reporters and the officials accompanying the suspects to keep the number of people inside the court minimum.

PML-N Lawyers Forum has already announced that they would not come to witness the indictment proceeding on Oct 19.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017