Al-Azizia reference: Islamabad High Court to decide on former Prime Minister Nawaz’s plea seeking suspension of sentence

An IHC bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani will announce the decision in the open court. The bench had on Wednesday reserved the decision on the petition seeking the suspension of seven-year sentence awarded to Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference, Dawn reported.

Accountability court Judge Mohammad Arshad Malik had on December 24, 2018 convicted Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills Company (ASCL) and Hill Metal Establishment (HME) reference, and awarded him seven years imprisonment with a fine of Rs1.5 billion and $25 million.

In his concluding arguments before the IHC bench, lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris had argued that successive medical boards were of the view that Sharif was suffering from multiple diseases, and they recommended his further medical investigation and examination.

Haris said that doctors were not taking any responsibility of Sharif’s treatment and this was the reason that since the middle of January, six different medical boards had been constituted to examine his health condition.

He said that the former premier was suffering from issues related to kidney, hypertension and diabetes, besides having cardiac problems.

The former prime minister has challenged his conviction in the IHC, claiming that the accountability court’s verdict in the case is marred with flaws and legal lacunae.