Pakistan: Former PM Nawaz Sharif, family members file appeal challenging verdict in corruption case
An accountability court sentenced Sharif to 10 years in jail and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to seven years. They were arrested on July 13.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, and son-in-law, retired Captain Safdar Awan, filed an appeal against the verdict in a corruption case in the Islamabad High Court on Monday.
The appeal highlighted the legal flaws in the verdict and asked for the lower court’s judgement to be declared null and void, and the three convicts to be released on bail, reported Geo News.
An accountability court sentenced Sharif to 10 years in jail, Maryam Nawaz to seven years, and Awan to one year in a corruption case on July 6. Awan was arrested on July 9, while Sharif and Nawaz were arrested soon after they landed in Lahore on July 13.
Maryam Nawaz’s counsel Amjad Pervaiz said that the accountability court’s verdict was not in compliance with the law. “Our case is very strong and on merit,” Pervaiz said. “We are right and we hope to get some relief.”
The National Accountability Bureau had filed three cases related to the purchase of four flats in London’s Avenfield House against Sharif and his children. The bureau registered the case on the basis of the Supreme Court’s verdict last year, which removed Sharif from the post of prime minister.
The agency had also named Sharif’s sons – Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz – as accused in the three cases. Sharif’s family insisted that they had purchased the apartments with “legitimate” financial resources but were unable to disclose those resources before either the accountability court or the Supreme Court.