The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday extended PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s protective bail in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases — in which he had been convicted — till October 26, after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said it had “no objections” to the plea filed by the deposed prime minister.
An IHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, issued the order on Nawaz’s petitions seeking protective bail in the cases and restoration of his appeals against his conviction.
In July 2018, ousted Nawaz was handed 10 years in jail in the Avenfield properties corruption reference for owning assets beyond known income and one year for not cooperating with the NAB, which was to be served concurrently.
The Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference pertains to the case in which he was sentenced to seven years in jail on Dec 24, 2018, and then taken to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, from where he was shifted to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail next day. He was also fined Rs1.5 billion and US$25 million in the case.
