ISLAMABAD: An Accountability Court (AC) on Thursday ordered the authorities concerned to auction the property owned by former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif after he was being declared absconder in Toshakhana reference.

The court, however, directed to issue auction order against only those property against which no objections had been received.

AC-III Judge Syed Asghar Ali heard the graft reference filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former president Asif Ali Zardari and two ex prime ministers including Nawaz Sharif and Yousaf Raza Gilani. The court also granted one-day exemption from hearing to Asif Zardari and Gilani.

At the outset of hearing, NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzafar Abbasi requested the court to issue order for auction of the property owned by Nawaz Sharif as he had been declared absconder in the reference.

At this, the court directed to issue auction orders against only those properties against which no objections were raised.

After this, the hearing was adjourned.

It may be mentioned here that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been declared proclaimed offender by the court on August 17, 2020 due to continuous absence from the trial and the court ordered on October 1, to confiscate his assets.

NAB had pleaded before the court that it had passed more than six months of confiscation of property but the former prime minister deliberately did not surrender before the court. It prayed the court to order the authorized institutions concerned for auction of confiscated property.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari were accused of taking the vehicles from Toshakhana for personal use during the regime of Pakistan Peoples Party.