Court dismisses Nawaz Sharif's request seeking transfer of remaining references to another judge

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court of Islamabad Thursday turned down the petition of Sharif family seeking to shift remaining two references to another judge and also adjourned Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference till July 17.

The order read that once the court had indicted the accused persons then it could not itself transfer the remaining references.

Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir resumed hearing of Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Defense counsel Khawaja Haris and joint investigation team head Wajid Zia also appeared before the court for cross-examining.

During the proceeding, Nawaz Sharif's counsel Khawaja Haris requested the judge to shift the remaining two references against his clients to another court. He argued that several things were common in all the references and that court had already announced its judgment on many of them in Avenfied property reference.

The judge remarked that after the indictment of accused in other references this court could not itself shift these cases to any other court. The court stated that Islamabad High Court (IHC) was now authorized to take such decision.

Judge Muhammad Bashir, however, said that the court would mention the reservations of defence in its written orders.

Khawaja Haris requested the court to adjourn hearing of the case till next Tuesday so that they could approach the relevant forum.

However, the NAB prosecutor contended that this court had indicted the accused and all proceeding of the reference was done before the same judge. It was better if the same court would continue hearing the remaining references, he said.

After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court dismissed the petition of defense and adjourned hearing of the case till July 17.