Al-Azizia reference: SC adjourns hearing in Nawaz's bail plea till March 26
Nawaz's lawyer submitted former PM's medical reports in the court.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday has issued notice to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s bail plea in Al-Azizia reference.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa conducted hearing during which, Nawaz’s lawyer Khawaja Haris presented his arguments and submitted former PM’s medical reports in the court.
The hearing has been adjourned till March 26.
Meanwhile, strict security measures were taken on the ocassion while lawyers and petitioner were only allowed to enter the courtroom.
It is to be mentioned here that Nawaz Sharif filed a petition in apex court against Islamabad High Court (IHC) for dismissing his bail.
The nine-page judgment stated that “where a prisoner is receiving medical treatment in hospital or in jail, he would not be entitled to the concession of bail; the petitioner has been hospitalized time and again since January, 2019, whenever he made complaints about his indisposition. In fact the reports of Board of Doctors and various Teams constituted, are indicative of the fact that petitioner is receiving best possible medical treatment available to any individual in Pakistan. The referred fact cannot be regarded as an ‘extraordinary situation’ and/or case of ‘extreme hardship’. Almost, every ailment has potential of being detrimental to one’s life but not, if the same is properly treated and taken care of, therefore, being indisposed per se cannot form basis to be released on bail.”
Another point of the judgment read “Finally, we find that objection taken by learned counsel for the respondents regarding maintainability of instant petition, is of no substance. The medical condition of the petitioner deteriorated on or about 15.01.2019 and it is only there-after that instant writ petition was filed. The case law cited by learned counsel for National Accountability Bureau is not attracted in the facts and circumstances of instant case.”
The judgment ended with remarks “For the above reasons, we find the instant petition to be without merit and the same is accordingly dismissed.”
The accountability court on December 24 convicted Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference, and subsequently sentenced him to seven years in prison while acquitted him in the Flagship reference cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in mega corruption scandals.
In the 131-page judgement written by the accountability court judge Arshad Malik, reasons of his conviction were mentioned.
It said that the prosecution had successfully established all the ingredients of the offence of corruption committed by Sharif, and that he had failed to provide legal money trail of his assets.
Later, Sharif was arrested from the premises of the accountability court.
