RAWALPINDI: An accountability court on Saturday, acting on a stay order from the Lahore High Court (LHC), adjourned to Sept 29 a hearing over the revival of corruption references filed against Nawaz Sharif, DawnNews reported.

The Rawalpindi accountability court was hearing the case for reopening the three references– Hudabiya Paper Mills, Ittefaq Foundaries and Raiwind assets reference – in which the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief, his brother Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and other family members are also allegedly involved.

During today's hearing, the counsel for the Sharif brothers appealed to the court that the high court had ordered an injunction on further proceedings. The court also accepted an application by Advocated Khawaja Harris Ahmed to represent the petitioners in place of Advocate Akram Sheikh.

Last Thursday, Khawaja Harris Ahmed had told the LHC Rawalpindi bench that earlier a division bench of the same court on October 18, 2011 passed an interim order in which it restrained the accountability court from proceeding in the references till further orders.

Ahmed said that due to some clerical mistake the respondent no. 3 (accountability court) was inadvertently typed as respondent no. 1 (federal government) and the mistake could be corrected under section 152 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

According to him, the mistake had come to the petitioners’ notice during the course of arguments, before the accountability court Rawalpindi, on an application by the National Accountability Bureau  for the cases’ revival.

The NAB, after deciding to proceed with the references as the restraining order only extended to the federal government and there was no legal bar on the bureau, issued notices to the Sharifs on July 28 to respond to the application for reopening the corruption references against them.

Last year, the LHC Rawalpindi bench temporarily restrained NAB from proceeding in the case. The court ordered NAB authorities to submit record of the cases on the next date of hearing and adjourned the matter to July 28.

The references had also been adjourned in September 2007 for an indefinite period because the Sharifs were in exile.