IHC clears Nawaz in the Al-Azizia case after Avenfield

Tuesday saw the nullification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s sentence by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which cleared him of any wrongdoing in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case.

The case was considered by a two-member IHC bench, which included IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and IHC Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb. The PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, his attorney Amjad Pervaiz, and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecution team were present in the courtroom.

Nawaz’s attorney took the rostrum at the beginning of the session and declared that he wished to dispute regarding Nawaz’s dependents. Pervaiz said that he just intended to dispute this one point when Justice Farooq told him that his arguments had been concluded.

The bench then asked if Nawaz’s dependents had been the subject of any proof from NAB. The witness Wajid Zia had acknowledged, according to the lawyer, that there was no evidence pertaining to the PML-N leader’s dependents. The defense had also objected in front of the trial court, he said, adding that there are multiple rulings available regarding the definition of benami cases.

He insisted that no one application could establish Nawaz’s ownership of these properties. Even though he claimed that the “matter did not concern Nawaz,” he also reminded the court that the trial court had relied on a TV interview with Nawaz’s son, Hussain Nawaz.

affirming that the burden of proof is with the prosecution and that an accused person is presumed innocent unless and unless proven guilty. “The accused can not be forced to prove his innocence,” Pervaiz stated.

In closing remarks, he restated the prosecution’s inability to “present a single piece of evidence, therefore the burden of proof can not be transferred onto the accused.”

Taking the rostrum next, the NAB prosecutor began by recounting the series of events that culminated in Nawaz’s conviction.

A significant police presence was present, and strict security measures were put in place inside and outside the court buildings. While a sizable gathering of the party’s supporters was gathered outside the IHC grounds, a sizable number of pro-PML-N attorneys were also present within the court premises.

The IHC denied the NAB’s request to remand the case back to a trial court during the most recent hearing, opting instead to hear the former prime minister’s appeal against his conviction in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case “on merit.”

On December 24, 2018, Judge Arshad Malik of the Islamabad Accountability Court-II found Nawaz guilty in the Al-Azizia case and sentenced him to seven years in prison and a $2.5 million fine.

In the Flagship case, the former PM was found not guilty by the same judge. However, the accountability judge gained notoriety after recordings surfaced in July 2019 purporting to show him admitting to a PML-N leader that he had found Nawaz guilty “under duress.”

In August 2019, the bench of the highest court issued an order against Malik in response to petitions filed following the video scandal. In July 2020, the judge was dismissed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) disciplinary committee due to his misconduct.

Interestingly, though, Nawaz’s attorneys, who had previously filed a variety of civil miscellaneous applications at the IHC requesting the PML-N leader’s acquittal in the Al-Azizia case because of the video scandal, said that Nawaz would not be pressing his appeal in light of Malik’s passing.

In the Avenfield corruption reference, where Nawaz Sharif was found guilty in July 2018 by an accountability court, the same bench cleared him on November 29. The NAB’s motion to drop its appeal against the accountability court’s decision to exonerate Nawaz in the Flagship reference was also granted by the court