Rawalpindi Accountability Court Judge Chaudhry Abdul Haq on Saturday adjourned the hearing until October 10 a NAB application seeking revival of three corruption references against PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and members of his family. The application filed by the NAB calls for reopening of three corruption references relating to Hudabiya Paper Mills, Ittefaq Foundries and Raiwind assets in which members of the Sharif family are allegedly involved. During the proceedings, an assistant of Khawaja Harris Ahmed, a senior counsel for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, apprised the court that hearing over the quashing of an FIR over the references was to be held at the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench on October 1. The assistant requested the judge to postpone the hearing until the said date. The judge subsequently adjourned the proceedings until October 10. Earlier on Sept 15, the judge had stopped proceedings on the corruption references after the Sharifs’ counsel submitted a restraining order of the Lahore High Court. Barrister Maqsooma Bokhari, representing the Sharif family, had informed the court that a division bench of the LHC had restrained the accountability court from proceeding until the matter was adjudicated by it. In October last year, the LHC acting on a petition by the Sharifs, had stopped the federal government from going ahead with the matter. The order, however, had not issued any such directive for the accountability court at the time. The NAB had prepared the references during the Musharraf regime in 2000 when the Sharif brothers were detained in the Attock Fort. On April 4, 2001, the references were adjourned sine die. On August 8, 2007, the NAB filed an application for revival of the references. But the court did not proceed with the matter which was again adjourned sine die in August 2008 because it was not routed through the NAB chairman.
Another application filed
by the NAB in February 2010 was rejected on the same grounds. The NAB has accused the Sharifs of committing Rs 642.743 million worth of corruption in the paper mills case. The second reference – the state versus Nawaz Sharif etc – relates to the Raiwind assets. In the state versus Ittefaq Foundries case, Nawaz, Abbas Sharif and Kamal Qureshi are accused of committing corruption of Rs 1,063 million.