Islamabad High Court to resume hearing of the petition today at 4 pm.
ISLAMABAD: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News, Oct 26th, 2019) The Islamabad High Court will resume hearing today at 4 pm on petition seeking suspension of seven-year sentence awarded to former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia reference.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justicec Mohsin Akhtar Kiani will take up the petition while Justice Amir Farooq was not included in the bench due to his off. The superior courts usually do not hear the cases on Saturday but Islamabad High Court is going to take up the matter today in a while just because of deteriorating health condition of Nawaz Sharif.
Earlier, the bench started proceedings at 12d: 15 pm at Islamabad High Court and Advocate Khawaja Haris appeared before the court as counsel of Nawaz Sharif.
During the proceedings earlier in the day, the bench observed that a medical report had been submitted in the court during yesterday's hearing of the bail plea and asked as to why a request for an early hearing of the case was made today.
On it, Advocate Khawaja Haris said that Nawaz had suffered a "minor heart attack" last night and that his "life was in danger". A copy of a verdict issued by the Lahore High Court yesterday, in which Nawaz had been granted bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, was also submitted in the court.
The IHC bench sought reply from Prime Minister Imran Khan, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal with directions to all these to send their representative to the court by 4 pm today.
Shehbaz Sharif filed the petition and made a request to the court to take up the bail plea today owing to Nawaz's "extremely critical condition". It said that the plea, which was heard yesterday, did not mention that on the night of October 24, Nawaz had suffered an angina attack "as a direct result of the medicine being administered to him to enhance his platelets". He said his brother Nawaz Sharif's health was deteriorating day by day and there was serious threat to his life because of poor health condition. The petitioner also annexed a 11-member medical board's report with his petition.
On Friday, the Lahore High Court granted bail to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Chaudhary Sugar Mills case on medical grounds. The court directed him to deposit two surety bonds of worth Rs 10 million each. However, Nawaz Sharif's release would not be made unless his sentence was suspended by the Islamabad High Court in Al-Azizia Reference.
On Oct 21, Nawaz Sharif fell ill after his platelets level dropped sharply and he was shifted to Services Hospital from NAB's dentention center for his immediate treatmenet. Nawaz Sharif's health, the doctors said, is quite serious. The doctors said that he might face heart attack because of continuous angina pain.
