Sharifs to celebrate Eid in jail

Islamabad: With the Islamabad High Court reserving its decision on petitions seeking their release, the incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Mohammad Safdar will be forced to celebrate Eidul Azha in Adiala jail. 

According to a report in Pakistan daily Dawn, this is not the first time when Sharif will celebrating the festival in captivity.  After the October 1999 coup, he was taken into custody and spent two Eids in detention.

On July 6, an accountability court had sentenced Mr Sharif to ten years, Maryam to seven years and Capt Safdar to one year in prison in the Avenfield properties reference.

An IHC division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb sustained an objection of the prosecution on maintainability of the petitions seeking suspension of the sentence awarded to the Sharifs, the report said.

National Accountability Bureau's prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi argued that after filing appeals against the conviction, the convicts could not file petitions for the suspension of the verdict.

Earlier, the court had ignored this objection and asked defence counsel Khawaja Haris and Amjad Pervaiz to advance their arguments. However, when the court had asked prosecutor Abbasi to argue the case on Thursday, he sought time for filing a reply. The bench had expressed annoyance over applying delaying tactics and subsequently imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on NAB and adjourned the hearing.

The court resumed the hearing on Monday and, after concluding the arguments, told Khawaja Haris that since the appeals against the conviction had already been fixed for hearing in the second week of this month, the decision on the Sharifs' petitions might be deferred till then.(UNI)