ISLAMABAD: The acco­untability court seized with corruption references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday got another extension for six weeks.

Accountability court judge Mohammad Arshad Malik had on Friday last week sought the fifth extension from the Supreme Court for concluding the hearing of two corruption references — Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment — against the ousted prime minister.

While granting the extension, a three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar also sought from the accountability court progress report on the status of trial on a weekly basis. The bench, however, ignored a request of defence counsel Khawaja Haris to extend the period of completing the trial till Dec 15 since it was difficult for him to focus and concentrate simultaneously on the references as well as an appeal pending before the Islamabad High Court against the sentence awarded by the accountability court to Mr Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Muhammad Safder in the Avenfield properties reference.

Advocate Haris requested the Supreme Court to stay the hearing on the Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment reference so that he could plead the appeal before an IHC bench consisting of Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb. The counsel argued that it was not humanly possible for him to plead the cases before two different courts simultaneously.

But the apex court observed that it could not regulate the trial before the accountability court and asked about the time needed to conclude the corruption references.

Additional Prosecutor General of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Akbar Tarar informed the court that testimonies of Wajid Zia, who headed the SC-appointed Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT), and the investigation officer in the case had not yet been completed.

When the counsel repeated the requested for extending the period of completing the trial till Dec 15, the court observed that it could order completing the trial first in the two remaining references and then hearing the appeal before the high court. The Sharif family should remain behind bars till a decision on the corruption references, it said.

In a lighter note, the chief justice observed that the counsel would become angry if the court said something, adding that when the highest court like the Supreme Court could sit and work on Saturdays and Sundays then why the counsel could not plead his case on these days.

On July 28 last year, the Supreme Court, while accepting petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and others, had removed Nawaz Sharif from the office of prime minister and directed NAB to file three references against him and members of his family.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2018