Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Captain Safdar were jailed a few weeks apart. Their arrest was due to the forgery of documents, lying under oath when in court and failing to provide legal evidence of their Avenfield properties. Since their jail, an appeal has been made. The Islamabad High Court has decided to postpone the appeal until after the general elections 2018 that are to be held on the 25th of July.
The father-daughter duo were detained from Lahore airport and shifted to Adiala jail. They have since been under arrest with their passports confiscated by NAB.
Three appeals were filed on behalf of Sharif, 2 for Maryam Nawaz and captain Safdar respectively. The appeals demanded a deferment of their sentences. However, the appeals were adjourned until end of July because the divisional court had not been notified of the change.
Defence counsel Khawaja Haris claimed that the judge never specified the significance of the properties bought at the time they were procured. Neither did the documents provided specify the income sources of the Sharif family. Once queried, the prosecution declared that no concrete or acceptable document was provided to demonstrate Sharif’s ownership of the Avenfield properties.
Amjad Pervaiz, the counsel for the couple claimed that the decision against Maryam and Safdar was based on personal biases and the declaration of forensic expert, Robert Radley.
Radley referred that the documents provided were not authentic since they had been developed using the Calibri font which was introduced in 2006 and was available for the masses. Therefore, it could not have been used on legal documents in 2005.
Haris has also argued that the judge rejected the money trail on the basis of Gulf Steel Mills, anticipating that the same trail may be rejected in the future again.
