The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) of 1999 and the conviction of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members under a “dead law”.

On July 6, an accountability court had handed Sharif 10 years as jail time for owning assets beyond known income and 1 year for not cooperating with NAB, as part of the Avenfield properties corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau against the Sharif family.

On July 11, senior lawyer AK Dogar, through a petition in the LHC, had claimed that the former prime minister and others were convicted by a court which had no jurisdiction because the law under which it (court) was created is a dead law.

The petitioner had urged the high court to suspend the operation of the accountability court’s judgment for being a court established under a non-existent law.

A three-member full bench of the LHC, under Justice Shahid Waheed's stewardship, ruled on the petition today, dismissing its concerns against the ordinance as well as the convictions.