The accountability court on Friday announced the verdict in the Avenfield corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), handing ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif 10 years as jail time for owning assets beyond income and 1 year for not cooperating with NAB. The sentences will run concurrently so he will serve 10 years in jail.as reported by South Punjab News
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz activists organised protest rallies and demonstrations in different cities of the country but these were neither impressive nor vocal. in Multan, Muslim league-Nawaz staged a demonstration at chowk Kutchehry under the leadership of Bilal butt advocate District President.The demo was not joined by the ticket holders of PML-N. PTI workers distributed sweetmeat among the poor and children on this verdict of accountability court. His daughter Maryam Nawaz was handed 7 years for abetment and 1 year for non-cooperation — also to run concurrently, so she will serve 7 years in total.
Son-in-law Captain Safdar has been given 1 year jail time for also not cooperating with NAB.
NAB had filed the reference, along with two others, on the Supreme Court's directives in the landmark Panamagate verdict last year which deseated then PM Nawaz.
Nawaz has been handed a fine of 8 million pounds, while Maryam has been fined 2m pounds. The money will go into the state treasury.
Four members of the Sharif family ─ Nawaz, Maryam, Hassan and Hussain ─ are in London, while Captain Safdar is in Pakistan, but is not present in court.
According to South Punjab News, the Sharif family, along with former finance minister Ishaq Dar, were gathered at the Avenfield flats in London to watch the verdict.
The verdict, which was scheduled for Friday morning, was delayed five times, finally being announced a little after 4:30pm.
The counsel for the family had submitted an application to the accountability court on Thursday, seeking a seven-day postponement in announcement of the verdict. The plea, however, was rejected in the morning.The atmosphere outside the court in Islamabad — where the fate of the Sharif family members was announced — was thick with tension and buzzing with media and security personnel. Both the capital police force and Rangers were deployed in riot gear outside the court.
Section 144 was imposed in the capital and police in the garrison city were on high alert. City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsan told earlier that although "strong retaliation" is not expected after the decision, they are taking precautionary measures to maintain peace in the city.
Sharifs' plea for delay in verdict
The ousted premier and his daughter had filed an application with a duty judge yesterday seeking a seven-day delay in the verdict announcement in light of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz's health.
The Sharif matriarch has been in London since last year, when she was diagnosed with cancer. She was recently placed on a ventilator and her condition remains more or less unchanged.
Receiving Nawaz and Maryam's application yesterday, duty judge Mohammad Arshad had issued notices to the prosecution wing of NAB, and left it up to Judge Bashir to decide on the application.
After Judge Bashir reached the accountability court on Friday morning, Additional Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi opposed Nawaz and Maryam's application, saying: "At a stage when the court concludes the trial and fixes a date for the final announcement, the accused cannot file application for any relief."
He pointed out that "when the court concludes the arguments, the accused is put on notice and under the law he should be brought to court, or the court orders the accused to ensure attendance."
In a rebuttal, the defence counsel, Advocate Amjad Pervez, argued that "There is a legal requirement that the accused person should be summoned at the time of announcement of judgement, and in this case Mr Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz both are ready to attend proceedings, but because of Kulsoom Nawaz's illness, they requested that the judgement may be postponed for a few days."
When the lawyer asked when decision on the application would be announced, Judge Bashir replied, "Give me an hour at least."
Subsequently, the court reserved its decision on the application for an hour, until 11am.
At 11am, the court announced that it had rejected the application for a delay, and said the verdict would be announced at 12:30pm.
The Avenfield reference
The Avenfield reference ─ which pertains to the purchase of four flats in Avenfield House, Park Lane, London ─ was among the three cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the former premier and his children on the Supreme Court's orders in its landmark July 28 Panamagate verdict which disqualified Sharif.
Besides Nawaz, Maryam and her husband Captain Safdar, NAB had also nominated Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz — Sharif's sons — as accused in all three SC-ordered corruption references.
The NAB prosecutor had stated before the accountability court that Nawaz Sharif had acquired the four flats.
Sharif family insists that they had purchased the apartments through ‘legitimate’ financial resources.
They, however, remained unable to disclose those resources before the accountability court or the Supreme Court.
The apex court had directed the accountability court to conclude proceedings within six months and appointed Justice Ijazul Ahsan — who was a member of the bench that heard Panama Papers case — as a “supervisory judge” for the trial.
The proceeding in the Avenfield reference commenced in September and the accountability court indicted Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar on October 19.
According to the JIT report submitted in the Panamagate case, the Sharifs have given contradictory statements about their London flats and found that the flats actually belonged to them since 1993.
The report said Hassan Nawaz had contradicted the statement of his brother Hussain Nawaz about the Avenfield apartments, who had earlier stated that only apartment No 17 was in his possession in 1994.
Contrarily, Hassan confirmed that three Avenfield apartments (No 16, 16A and 17) were already in possession of Hussain when he had arrived in London in 1994, while they got the possession of the fourth apartment (17A) in the next six months.
The JIT observed that either one or both brothers had lied to hide some facts and hence they could not be given the benefit of doubt.
It said Nawaz Sharif had distanced himself from the apartments and could not explain the time frame and procedure adopted for obtaining the possession of Avenfield apartments by his sons, and was even uncertain about which son claimed the ownership of the flats now.
But Nawaz told the JIT that he usually stayed in apartment No 16 (Avenfield) whenever he visited London.
The prosecution produced 21 witnesses in the Avenfield reference, including star witness Wajid Zia, the head of the joint investigation team (JIT) which probed the Panamgate case, Director General NAB Zahir Shah, British forensic expert Robert William Radley and solicitor Akhtar Riaz Raja, who is Zia's cousin, among others.
In May this year, Nawaz, his daughter and son-in-law recorded their statements under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) after which the court invited final arguments from the prosecution and the defence counsel.
The lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris initially withdrew from Sharif's defence over the court beginning the final arguments since he was of the view that the accountability court instead of calling for final arguments should first conclude testimony of prosecution witnesses in other two references – Al Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment.
However, he rejoined the legal team after Nawaz left for the United Kingdom in mid-June where his spouse Kulsoom Nawaz is undergoing medical treatment.
Haris took seven days to conclude the final arguments after which the counsel of Maryam and Safdar started his final arguments.
During the course of arguments, the defence counsel cited a number of judgements of the superior courts to prove that the case against the former prime minister and his family was devoid of evidence.
Nawaz and Maryam have appeared before the court around 100 times, according to media reports.
