Accountability court grants Sharif exemption from future hearings

An accountability court accepted on Monday deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s application to be exempted from future hearings from December 5 to December 11. However, Maryam Nawaz, who had changed her exemption date from November 15 to December 15 to December 5 to January 5, was not granted exemption.

The bench hearing the corruption references said that she already had received exemption earlier and that was still intact. The court then adjourned the hearing to Tuesday (tomorrow).

Meanwhile, Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected this afternoon the application filed by the Sharif family to merge all the three references filed against them by National Accountability Bureau into one.

The accountability court was scheduled to resume court proceedings against the Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar on Monday morning. However, the court adjourned the hearing till 1pm, after Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Harris requested Judge Muhammad Bashir to await IHC's decision pertaining to the Sharif’s application to club the three references into one.

Harris had told the bench that IHC was expected to begin the proceedings on Monday morning and announce its verdict in the afternoon, after which the court adjourned the proceedings to this afternoon, local media reported. As the hearing was suspended, Nawaz, Maryam and her husband left for Punjab House.

Accountability court grants Sharif’s application to suspend today’s hearing

During the hearing on November 28, Sharif had asked to suspend the court proceedings as IHC had not passed its verdict regarding petition pertaining to the clubbing of references. He had sought to suspend the proceedings till the IHC announced its judgment. The court had granted his application and had adjourned the hearing to December 4 (today).

Earlier today, Sharif, Maryam and Captain (retd) Safdar had arrived at the accountability court after landing at Islamabad airport. The Sharifs were welcomed by a large number of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers in court.