ISLAMABAD/LONDON: The accountability court hearing corruption references against the Sharif family has dispatched bailable arrest warrants to deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s three children and his son-in-law’s London residence address through Pakistan’s High Commission in London.
Sources said that two copies of warrants for each of the accused were sent to the high commissioner. A copy of the warrants was also sent to their residence in Lahore.
Earlier, the accountability court had issued bailable arrest warrants for Nawaz Sharif’s children Hassan, Hussain and Maryam along with his son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar over failure to appear before the in NAB references. The warrants were issued after Nawaz Sharif was granted permission by the court to leave for UK to attend his ailing wife, following his short appearance on September 26. The court also announced to indict the former prime minister on October 2 in cases pertaining to London flats and Azizia Steel Mills against the Sharif family.
The references were filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the orders of the Supreme Court which disqualified Nawaz Sharif from holding public office on July 28 in the Panama Papers case.
A day earlier, the accountability court also formally indicted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in a corruption reference filed against him by NAB for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. During the hearing, judge Muhammad Bashir read out the charges against Dar. However, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges, terming them baseless and concocted.
Published in Daily Times, September 29th 2017.
