The Accountability Court on Wednesday reserved verdicts in the remaining two corruption references against former premier Nawaz Sharif.
The court will announce its verdicts in Flagship Investment and Al-Azizia references against the Sharif family on Monday, December 24
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had concluded its final arguments in the Flagship Investment reference against Nawaz on Tuesday – the third and last reference against the PML-N leader. The NAB had wrapped up its arguments in the Al-Azizia reference earlier this month.
Accountability Court II Judge Arshad Malik in his remarks said that the court rejected Nawaz's request for more time in the case, as NAB had expressed reservation that granting more time could delay the cases.
The judge, while hearing the concluding arguments in the Flagship reference against Nawaz yesterday, had ordered the parties to give additional arguments on the Supreme Court decision in the references until 1 pm on Wednesday.
On December 7, the Supreme Court had directed the accountability court to conclude the cases by December 24, after previously granting it seven extensions to wrap up the references initiated by NAB.
The trial against the Sharif family commenced on September 14, 2017.
On July 6, after four extensions in the original six-month deadline to conclude all three cases, the accountability court announced its verdict in the Avenfield reference.
Nawaz and his sons, Hussain and Hasan, are accused in all three references whereas Maryam and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only.
Accountability Court (AC) Judge Arshad Malik on Tuesday reprimanded two Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders for making noise during the hearing of a corruption case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Former Capital Administration and Development (CAD) minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and former information minister Marriyum Aurganzeb were talking to each other in court when the judge summoned the former ministers to the rostrum.
“I was thinking that some illiterate people were making noise, but the I was told that you are educated,” the judge said, while pointing to the PML-N leader. “Don’t you have respect for the court,” he questioned.
The judge directed the people having nothing to do with the case to leave the court. Subsequently, Marriyum Aurangzeb left the court premises.
The accountability judge resumed hearing into the Flagship Investment and Hill Metals corruption case against the former premier today as a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor began forwarding his final arguments.
