Maryam Nawaz files plea challenging her conviction in IHC

Daughter of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and party’s Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday submitted an application to the Islamabad High Court seeking her acquittal in the Avenfield reference case basing her petition’s grounds on the revelations made by ex-judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In her petition, the PML-N leader stated that she should be acquitted of the Evanfield conviction as former justice Shaukat Siddiqui’s speech had put all the proceedings of the accountability court into question. 

Maryam Nawaz pleaded that the proceeding of the trial and the orders to file a reference against the petitioner might have been carried out under some ‘pressure’. 

It is incumbent upon the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to conduct its proceedings in a transparent manner, the petition stated.

Irfan Qadir Advocate submitted the petition to the IHC on behalf of Maryam Nawaz. 

Maryam was convicted by an accountability court on July 6, 2017 in the Avenfield reference. 

The petitioner stated that her conviction was a classic example of political engineering and violation of the law. 

The petition further said that IHC ex-justice Shaukat Siddiqui disclosed that he was approached and told that Nawaz Sharif and his daughter should not be allowed to come out from the prison.

Abbasi laments accountability process 

PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that a so-called process of accountability is continued. 

He was talking to the media outside the accountability court on Tuesday. He lamented that the NAB first put people in jails then filed cases against them. 

He said that names of 700 Pakistanis who owned offshore companies appeared in the Panama Papers but they were not put behind the bars. 

“PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was convicted in Panama case despite the fact that his name was not there in Panama,” Abbasi added.