The Islamabad High Court on Thursday accepted PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s plea, granting him bail in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases until October 24. It comes before the former premier’s impending arrival on Oct 21. His planned return to Pakistan would be after more than four years of self-imposed exile. In July 2018, ousted Nawaz was handed 10 years in jail in the Avenfield properties corruption reference for owning assets beyond known income and one year for not cooperating with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which was to be served concurrently.

The Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference pertains to the case in which he was sentenced to seven years in jail and then taken to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. He was also fined Rs1.5 billion and US$25 million in the case. A day ago, PML-N lawyers had moved the IHC seeking protective bail for Nawaz in these two cases, with NAB Special Prosecutor Afzal Qureshi saying that the accountability watchdog did not object to pleas moved by the elder Sharif. Nawaz’s counsels, including former law minister Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervaiz, appeared before the court while NAB prosecutors Rana Maqsood, Qureshi and Naeem Sanghera were also present. Separately, an Islamabad accountability court suspended perpetual arrest warrants issued against Nawaz in 2020 in the Toshakhana reference.

The case accused him, former president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of receiving luxury vehicles and gifts from the Toshakhana — a department that stores gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and officials by heads of other governments, states, and foreign dignitaries. In June 2020, an accountability court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the former premier in the case. Months later, Nawaz challenged the warrants in the IHC but withdrew the petition days later.

On Sept 10, 2020, he was declared a proclaimed offender in the case, with an accountability court initiating the process to confiscate his properties and directing NAB to make his arrest through Interpol. The next month, an accountability court ordered authorities to seize the ex-premier’s assets, including national and international bank accounts, agricultural land and vehicles. Following the Supreme Court’s order that struck down amendments to the NAB laws and reopened graft cases against public office holders, an accountability court had also summoned Zardari and Gillani in the same case last month. Today, Judge Muhammad Bashir took up a petition seeking the suspension of the warrants, where Qazi Misbah appeared as Nawaz’s counsel while the NAB prosecutor was also present.

 During the hearing, Misbah urged the court to suspend the non-bailable arrest warrants issued against his client. He informed the court that the PML-N supremo wanted to appear before the court on October 24 as there was already a case fixed for that day. The judge then sought the record of the case. The lawyer argued that warrants against former finance minister Ishaq Dar were also suspended in a “case of similar scale”. Assuring the judge that Nawaz would appear before the accountability court, Misbah argued that the NAB had not issued any arrest warrant against the PML-N supremo. Meanwhile, the prosecutor informed the court that the former prime minister “was saying he wants to surrender before the court”. He offered that the court may suspend the warrants till October 24 if the suspect wanted to appear before the court.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)