Avenfield, Al-Azizia References: Nawaz files pleas to restore appeals against sentence

Islamabad: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has filed petitions in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to revive the appeals against the conviction in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references.

According to details, Lawyer Amjad Pervaiz has filed applications to restore appeals on behalf of Nawaz Sharif.

The petitions have requested that the appeals be revived and decided after hearing the arguments on merits.

It is pertinent to note that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been convicted in Avenfield and Al-Azizia reference and is disqualified from public office for 10 years.

Earlier on October 21, Nawaz Sharif consulted his lawyers in the lounge of Islamabad Airport on his return home after four years and signed the petitions for reinstatement of appeals.

Before that, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of IHC dismissed Nawaz Sharif's appeals for non-compliance after he went abroad for treatment.

The court had accepted the appeals of Nawaz Sharif's co-accused Maryam Nawaz and Captain Retired Safdar in the Avenfield reference and declared their punishment null and void and gave a decision to honorably acquit them from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference.

While dismissing them, the judgment had written that if the authorities arrest them or if they surrender, they can file a request for reinstatement of the appeals.

The court has also barred NAB from arresting Nawaz Sharif till October 24 for him to surrender.