Court to announce verdicts in references against ‘Nawaz Sharif’ day before his birthday

ISLAMABAD (December 19, 2018): An accountability court today reserved verdicts in ‘Flagship Investment’ and ‘Al-Azizia’ references against former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif which will be announced on Monday, December 24.

25th December is former PM Nawaz Sharif’s birthdate – time will tell whether he gets gift of freedom or jail on 24th December in the court’s verdicts.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had concluded its final arguments in the Flagship reference against Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday which for now is the third and last reference against the PML-N leader. The final arguments in the Al-Azizia reference were concluded by NAB earlier this month.

Former PM’s counsel Khwaja Harris demanded one week more time to submit a pending document which the Accountability Court II’s Hon. Judge Arshad Malik denied due to NAB’s reservation that granting more time could delay the cases and also due to the deadline set by the Hon. Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The judge told the parties that any additional documents may be submitted in the court by Friday, December 21.

Former PM Nawaz Sharif directly pleading to Hon. Judge told the court that: “he hopes for justice and that no corruption could be proved against him,” as per sources.

Later outside court thanking the party members and leaders for coming to the court with him, the former PM noted that it was his 165th court appearance in the cases.

“I never misused my powers. I served the nation and the public with true dedication,” he added.

“[We] eliminated terrorism, inflation from the country, revived the economy, made Pakistan a nuclear power”, Nawaz Sharif said further.

Nawaz lamented that the cases were based on mere “speculation and rumours”. “Is this [what I deserve] for serving this country?” he questioned.

On December 7, the Supreme Court had directed the accountability court to conclude the cases by December 24, after previously granting it seven extensions to conclude the references filed by NAB.