The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday gave NAB a month’s time to the NAB counsel to prepare for the Avenfield case.
During a hearing on pleas filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her husband Muhammad Safdar, newly-appointed NAB special prosecutor sought four weeks time to prepare the case against Maryam and Safdar.
Maryam’s counsel Irfan Qadir said the high court had asked NAB a question and the proceedings wouldn’t take long if NAB submitted the response to that query. Qadir said he wanted NAB to have the opportunity to prepare well for the case.
“We had always wanted to take this case to a logical conclusion at the earliest,” he said, requesting the court to direct NAB for early conclusion of arguments in the case.
The NAB counsel said the case was not just related to two documents, adding that he had a lot to say but wouldn’t say at this point. Qadir said NAB had affixed irrelevant records with its application.
NAB counsel Azhar Siddique said he couldn’t get time to go through the case as the notification for his appointment as the special prosecutor was issued a day ago.
The NAB prosecutor quipped that Maryam’s counsel wanted to give “a sentence to media” by making such remarks.
However, the court stopped the counsels from taking jibes at each other.
Maryam’s previous counsel, Amjad Pervez, was also present at the hearing. He said the case should have been concluded in 30 days as per the NAB ordinance. “Amjad sahib, you had been on leave because of illness,” retorted Justice Aamir Farooq.
“Such thirty days have come and gone,” he said, adding that initially, NAB had wanted the court to decide the case against Sharifs in 30 days. “We had rejected that petition,” Justice Farooq added.
Maryam Nawaz while speaking to the media, chided Prime Minister Imran Khan over the arrest of a PML-N social media worker over ‘vilification’ of Imran’s wife. She said, “When my mother was on her death bed, the workers of PTI [the ruling party] used to say that she was perfectly fine, having meals in the hospital.”
“The workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) standing outside my apartment used to hurl abuses whenever I came back from the hospital, “ she said, adding that she was detained in a “death cell” during her imprisonment. “Am I not someone’s daughter,” she questioned.
She took a jibe at the PM by stating that “I pity his mindset,” she said, adding that the premier should have the “same standard for other women as he has for his wife”.
“He is the first prime minister in the world who enjoys a lavish lifestyle at his Banigala residence on taxpayers’ money,” she quipped. Maryam said how could the PM understand the pain of people burdened by inflation when “his kitchen was being run on someone else’s money”.
