ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday rejected a petition moved by Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar seeking a delay in his indictment in a corruption reference, saying the petition was non-maintainable.
Safdar had argued in the petition that the indictment could not happen until at least seven days after his first appearance in court. Since it will have been only four days on October 13 since Safdar’s appearance, he had requested the IHC to cancel the indictment on Friday.
Hearing the matter, a division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Aurangzeb declared the petition non-maintainable. The bench asked the petitioner’s counsel if there is any Supreme Court order stating that charges cannot be framed before seven days, to which the counsel replied in the negative.
Safdar and his wife Maryam Nawaz had on Monday appeared before an accountability court in Islamabad. After the proceedings, the court had granted them bail, barred Safdar from leaving Pakistan without the court’s permission and set the date of their indictment for October 13.
Nawaz, his daughter Maryam, and son-in-law Safdar are expected to be indicted by the accountability court hearing corruption cases against them on Friday.
Judge Muhammad Bashir of the accountability court also approved the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) plea to declare Nawaz’s sons Hassan and Hussain proclaimed offenders and separated their proceedings in the three references filed against them. Their non-bailable arrest warrants, issued at the last hearing on October 2, remain in effect.
The accountability court is hearing a total of three corruption cases against the Sharif family filed by NAB in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Panama Papers case.