A number of witnesses on Tuesday recorded their statements before an accountability court hearing three corruption references filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his close relatives by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir heard the case. Nawaz Sharif was represented by his lawyer Advocate Khawaja Harris, while his children were represented by Advocate by Amjad Pervez Bhatti.

Malik Tayyab, a prosecution witness associated with Standard Chartered Bank, recorded his statement against the ousted prime minister, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired captain Muhammad Safdar, in the Flagship Investments and Azizia Steel Mills references. However, due to shortage of time, his statement could not be completed. He has been summoned again tomorrow.

Tayyab has so far provided details of cheques issued to Maryam and others from the former premier's bank account.

Tayyab told the court that on June 13, 2015, a cheque worth Rs12 million was issued to Maryam. Another cheque worth Rs28.8m was issued to her later that year, on November 15.

On August 14, 2016, Nawaz issued another cheque worth Rs19.5m to his daughter, the witness told the court.

The recording of Tayyab's statement was paused as the court moved on to record statements from NAB Lahore officials Umer Daraz and Mukhtar, who were among those who delivered the NAB summons to Nawaz Sharif and his family members at Jati Umrah.

The witnesses told the court that the summons had been delivered to Shamim House, Jati Umrah, and were received by security officers Ataullah and Malik Arif.

A witness, Mukhtiar, recorded his statement pertaining to the Avenfield flats reference, and another witness, Adeel Akhtar, was summoned to record his statement in the same reference.

Foreign Office employee Afaq Ahmed was summoned as a witness to record his statement in the next hearing of the Flagship Investments reference.

The Avenfield and Flagship Investments references' hearings were adjourned until Monday, Dec 11.

The former premier's son-in-law, who was present in court, put forward a request to be exempted from appearing before the court for 15 days. In his absence, Safdar will be represented by Advocate Faisal Irfan.

Nawaz, Maryam off to London

The ousted prime minister and his daughter departed for London from Lahore airport on Tuesday morning after the former was granted a week-long exemption from appearing in court from Dec 5 to Dec 11 during yesterday's hearing.

On Monday, Maryam had, too, put forward a request for exemption from appearance before the court but it was rejected. The court had noted that she had already received such an exemption earlier from Nov 15 to Dec 15, which was still intact.

Nawaz will remain in London for five days. His wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, has reportedly been undergoing medical treatment in the British capital for some time now.

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.