ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reinstated the appeals of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif against the conviction verdicts in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases by accountability courts.
Nawaz Sharif, who has served as Pakistan’s prime minister on three occasions and was previously removed from office, personally appeared before a division bench of the IHC. This bench, led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and including Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb, considered his pleas against the sentences he received in these two corruption cases.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), responsible for combating corruption, informed the court that it did not object to reviving Nawaz’s appeals. However, when questioned about whether NAB would defend the judgments against Nawaz when presenting arguments during the appeals’ restoration, the anti-corruption body said it would review the case and evidence before making its arguments.
Earlier, the Islamabad High Court had granted protective bail to Nawaz Sharif on October 19, allowing him to safely return to the country and appear before the court on October 24. On October 24, following NAB’s statement that it had no objections to Nawaz’s appeals, his bail in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases was extended until October 26.
Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to ten years in prison in the Avenfield Properties corruption case in July 2018 for possessing assets beyond his known income, and he received an additional one-year sentence for not cooperating with the anti-graft watchdog. Both sentences were to be served concurrently. In the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case, he was sentenced to seven years in jail on December 24, 2018. He was initially taken to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and transferred to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.
After being released from jail in March 2019, Nawaz Sharif traveled to London for medical treatment in November 2019 following permission granted by the Lahore High Court. In December 2020, the Islamabad High Court declared him a proclaimed offender in both cases. However, the protective bail granted by the IHC last week allowed Nawaz to return to the country on October 21, ending his four-year exile.
