Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will appear before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on October 24 in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia corruption references, his legal team confirmed on Sunday.
Nawaz sharif is scheduled to leave for Murree on Monday, where he will hold important meetings with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership.
He will travel from Murree to Islamabad on October 24 to attend the court hearing, and then return to Murree the same day. He is expected to stay in Murree for two to three days, party sources said.
Sharif’s return and court appearances are seen as a major political and legal development, as he faces several cases of corruption and money laundering.
The Avenfield and Al-Azizia references are two of the three cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against Sharif and his family in 2017, following his disqualification by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal.
The Avenfield reference pertains to the ownership of four luxury flats in London, for which Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10.5 million by an accountability court in 2018.
The Al-Azizia reference relates to the establishment of Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment in Saudi Arabia, for which Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison with a fine by the same court in 2018.
Sharif’s appeals against both convictions were dismissed by the IHC in 2019 for non-compliance, as he failed to appear before the court due to his medical treatment abroad.
He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on humanitarian grounds and allowed to travel to London for treatment in November 2019.
On Thursday, the IHC granted Sharif protective bail till October 24 in both references, after his lawyers filed petitions seeking the revival of his appeals. The NAB did not oppose the petitions.
Sharif also faces another case of corruption and misuse of authority in the Toshakhana reference, which accuses him, former president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of receiving luxury vehicles and gifts from foreign dignitaries through the Toshakhana – a state repository of gifts.
An accountability court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Sharif in this case in 2020 and declared him a proclaimed offender. The court had also ordered the confiscation of his assets and directed the NAB to arrest him through Interpol.
