IHC adjourns Nawaz Sharif's case hearing till Nov 23

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday adjourned a plea moved by former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif challenging the trial court's decision of not merging three references being heard by the Accountability Court against him till November 23.

A two-member IHC bench comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani adjourned the hearing with direction to Nawaz Sharif's counsel Azam Nazir Tarrar to complete his arguments on next date of hearing.

During the course of proceedings, Azam Tarrar pleaded before the court that all the three references filed against his client were supplemented by the same nine-volume report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) while two witnesses were common in all the three references (18/2017, 19/2017 and 20/2017) and six witnesses were common in Reference No 18/2017 and Reference No 19/2017, he added.

Tarrar argued that the Accountability Court had passed the order without waiting for the detailed judgment of the august court in that connection. He argued it was against the fundamental right of his client and requested the court to direct the Accountability Court to frame a joint charge in accordance with Section 17 (d) of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

He apprised the court, since six witnesses out of total nine were the same in Azizia Steel Mills reference and Flagship Investment Ltd reference, the trial court should club the two at-least as accountability court itself admitted that point.

He requested the high court to direct the accountability court to decide the matter afresh in line with Section 17-D of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) and applicable laws.

He alleged that order of the accountability court order was apparently based on misreading, non-reading of facts and misconstruction of law.

Arguments of the counsel were underway when the bench adjourned hearing of the case till November 23, due to shortage of time.