Accepting the appeal of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif against punishment in Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference on Tuesday Islamabad High Court acquitted former prime minister Sharif declaring National Accountability Court sentence in the matter null and void.
USA based Associated Press reported on Tuesday “A Pakistani court overturned Tuesday the 2018 conviction of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a graft case, clearing his path to run in the parliamentary election set to be held in February. The Islamabad High Court announced its verdict after Sharif filed his appeal in October. Courts in Pakistan usually take much longer to issue such rulings. The same court acquitted Sharif in another graft case on Nov. 29.”
Challenging verdict of sentence before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) during January 2019, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged the court to set aside conviction and fine that Accountability Court awarded in Azizia Steel Mills reference on December 24 soon after he was sent to Adila jail and on the next day was shifted to Kot Lakhpat jail Lahore.
While awarding seven-year sentence to Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference, Accountability Court acquitted him in Flagship corruption reference filed in wake of Panama papers case. Filing appeal before the IHC, Khawaja Haris, counsel for Nawaz Sharif submitted that Accountability Court has convicted his client on the grounds of inadmissible evidence, misconception while misinterpreting the law.
On Tuesday, a Division Bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb adjudicated the matter in presence of the prosecution team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Nawaz Sharif and his counsel Amjad Pervaiz.
At outset of the hearing, Nawaz Sharif’s counsel appeared before the bench saying he wanted to argue about Nawaz’s dependants. When Justice Farooq informed him that his arguments had been concluded, Pervaiz stated that he only wanted to argue on this single point.
The bench then inquired if NAB had proven anything regarding Nawaz’s dependents. The counsel said that Wajid Zia, a witness, had admitted that there was no evidence connected to the PML-N leader’s dependants. He added that several verdicts are available on the definition of benami cases and said the defence had also raised objection in front of the trial court.
He maintained that no single application proved Nawaz was the owner of these assets. He also reminded the court that the trial court had relied on a TV interview of Nawaz’s son, Hussain Nawaz, even though he stated that the “matter did not concern Nawaz”. Stating that the accused is innocent until proven guilty and the onus lies on the prosecution to prove the charges. “The accused can not be forced to prove his innocence,” said Pervaiz.
He reiterated that the prosecution team could not “present a single piece of evidence, therefore the burden of proof can not be transferred onto the accused,” he said concluding his arguments. The NAB prosecutor then took the rostrum and started by narrating the sequence of events which led to Nawaz’s conviction.
Strict security arrangements were made in and around the court premises and a heavy contingent of police was deployed. A large number of pro-PML-N lawyers were also present within the court premises while a large crowd of the party’s supporters were present outside the IHC premises. During the last hearing, the IHC decided to hear the former prime minister’s appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case “on merit” as it rejected NAB’s prayer to remand the case back to a trial court.
Islamabad Accountability Court-II judge Arshad Malik on December 24, 2018, convicted Nawaz in Al-Azizia case, sentencing him to seven years in prison while imposing on him a fine of $2.5 million. The same judge had acquitted the former PM in the Flagship case. The accountability judge had, however, become controversial after the emergence of videos in July 2019 in which he could be seen allegedly confessing to a PML-N leader that he convicted Nawaz “under duress.”
A apex court bench, hearing petitions filed in the wake of the video scandal, had in August 2019 ordered action against Malik and a disciplinary committee of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had in July 2020 sacked the judge in view of misconduct. However, interestingly, Nawaz’s counsels, who had earlier filed civil miscellaneous applications in the IHC seeking acquittal of the PML-N leader in the Al-Azizia case in view of the video scandal, announced that Nawaz did not want to press his application due to Malik’s demise.
On November 29, the same bench acquitted Nawaz in the Avenfield corruption reference, a case in which Nawaz Sharif was convicted by an accountability court in July 2018. The court had also accepted NAB’s request to withdraw its appeal against the accountability court’s order to acquit Nawaz in the Flagship reference.
