Maryam to appear before accountability court tomorrow

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ISLAMABAD: The daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz will leave Lahore for Islamabad to appear before the Accountability Court, which has summoned her on October 26 in a corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Court (NAB).

NAB court judge Muhammad Bashir is hearing the references in the corruption cases against the Sharif family.

On October 19, the Accountability Court indicted Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar in corruption cases filed by NAB. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty, upon which the NAB court judge summoned the witnesses to testify before the court in the next hearing on Oct 26.

Since Nawaz Sharif is in London, his representative Zafir Khan attended the hearing where the charge-sheet was read out to him. Zafir Khan pleaded not guilty on Sharif’s behalf. Maryam and Safdar were indicted only in London flats reference whereas Nawaz Sharif was charge-sheeted in all three references – London flats, Flagship Investment Ltd and Azizia Steel Mills.

According to the charge-sheet in Azizia Steel Mills reference case, Nawaz failed to justify sources of his assets, and that he established nameless assets against the names of his children with the help of absconding offenders.

The charge-sheet proposes sentence for the ex-PM over corruption.

Earlier, the court rejected two separate applications – one by Maryam Nawaz and Captain (retd) Safdar and the other by Nawaz Sharif – against their indictment. Another application has been filed by Nawaz Sharif to club all three cases.

NAB prosecutor sought time from the court to prepare his arguments over the new plea.