The accountability court on Monday resumed hearing corruption references against Nawaz Sharif and his family members after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed a petition filed by the former prime minister seeking consolidation of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) corruption references against members of his family.

Earlier today, the accountability court had suspended its hearing into the corruption references as it awaited the high court's decision on Nawaz's petition.

In the petition filed in the IHC, the ousted premier had sought joint trial in three references pertaining to the Avenfield properties, Flagship Investments and Al-Azizia Mills.

As the IHC dismissed the petition, Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz returned to the accountability court as the hearing into the corruption references resumed.

The court today granted Nawaz a week-long exemption from appearing in court from Dec 5 to Dec 11 as he wishes to be with his wife who is receiving cancer treatment, but rejected his daughter's request for an exemption from court hearings, saying she had already received such an exemption earlier from Nov 15 to Dec 15, which was still intact."

The court also declared Hassan and Hussain Nawaz absconders as witnesses began recording statements against them under Section 512 of the NAB Ordinance.

The NAB prosecutor told the court that neither of the brothers possess any property and their bank accounts had already been frozen.

Earlier today, the father-daughter duo, accompanied by Nawaz's son-in-law retired Captain Safdar arrived at the same court after landing at Islamabad airport. The former premier had been welcomed at the court by a large number of PML-N workers.

NAB's prosecution team and three witnesses also appeared before the court this morning.

As the hearing began, the Sharif's counsel Advocate Khawaja Harris, had requested the court to suspend proceedings until the high court announces its decision.

In turn, the court had suspended proceedings until after the announcement of the IHC's verdict.

As the hearing was suspended earlier, Nawaz, Maryam and her husband left for Punjab House, where they participated in meetings with senior PML-N leaders and Javed Hashmi.

Clubbing of references

On November 24, the high court had reserved its judgement on the petition seeking clubbing of the references filed against the former premier and his close relatives.

Nawaz's lawyer had argued before a two-member bench of the high court that similarities had been noted between the references and sought the consolidation of at least two references ─ Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment references.

The lawyer pointed out that the references list the same three individuals as accused and added that six out of 13 witnesses in both references were also the same.

NAB references

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court on July 28 had directed NAB to file references against Nawaz and his children in six weeks in the accountability court and directed the trial court to decide the references within six months.

The Supreme Court also assigned Justice Ijazul Ahsan a supervisory role to monitor the progress of the accountability court proceedings.

NAB had filed three references on Sept 8 against Sharif and his family, and another reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The three references against the Sharif family are related to the Flagship Investment Ltd, the Avenfield (London) properties and Jeddah-based Al-Azizia Company and Hill Metal Establishment.

The former premier and his sons, Hassan and Hussain, have been named in all three NAB references, while Maryam and husband Safdar have been named only in the Avenfield reference.