ISLAMABAD: Former convicted prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law captain (r) Safdar on Saturday are likely to file an appeal against the Avenfield Properties corruption reference verdict.
Earlier on Friday night, former PM Nawaz and his daughter had been jailed a couple of hours after a team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) formally arrested them at the Lahore airport on their arrival from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as several thousand party supporters gathered on the streets of Lahore to ‘welcome’ their leaders.
The convicted father-daughter duo had landed in Lahore amid an impressive power show put up by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), as thousands of workers and sympathisers reached the Mall Road by breaking through cordons amid an unwarranted police crackdown ordered by the interim provincial government.
Earlier on July 8, the retired captain had surrendered before NAB after joining a PML-N rally in Rawalpindi and the anti-graft watchdog was finally able to arrest him from Sixth Road amid protests of PML-N supporters.
An anti-graft court in Islamabad had on July 6, sentenced Nawaz to a total of 11 years in prison and slapped a £8 million fine (Rs1.3 billion) in the Avenfield case, whereas Maryam received an eight-year sentence with a £2 million fine (Rs335 million).