The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday transferred two pending references against incarcerated PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif from the court of Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir to another accountability court of Islamabad, DawnNewsTV reported.
On July 6, accountability court Judge Mohammad Bashir had announced the verdict in the Avenfield properties corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), handing the ousted prime minister 10 years as jail time for owning assets beyond known income and seven years to his daughter Maryam Nawaz for abetment.
Later on July 16, Sharif, through his counsel Khawaja Haris, had filed an appeal in the IHC for the transfer of Al-Azizia and Flagship references to another accountability court since the arguments in both cases were similar to the ones given in the Avenfield reference. Days later, Judge Bashir had decided to recuse himself from hearing the two pending references.
During the course of arguments on the appeals seeking transfer of pending references, Haris had argued that at least 12 grounds were common in the three NAB references against Sharif.
Furthermore, Sharif's counsel had claimed that judge Bashir had discarded these facts before announcing the verdict on the Avenfield reference.
When the NAB prosecutor today argued that the defence counsel wanted re-opening of the entire case, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb reminded him that the appellant merely wanted transfer of the case and not a re-trial.
The two-member bench then reserved and announced its verdict on the petition, granting the Sharif family their request for the remaining two references against them to be heard by Judge Arshad Malik, instead of Judge Bashir.
