SUNDAY TIMES ISLAMABAD:Special security arrangements have been taken for forthcoming pronouncement as additional contingents of police are deployed in and around the high court today.
Entrance of unauthorised and unrelated persons is prohibited following security concerns.
The former premier is currently admitted in Jinnah Hospital Lahore after being transferred from Kot Lakhpat jail on February 15 owing to his illness. The decision to shift Sharif to hospital, had been taken on the recommendation of the medical board.
Sharif had first filed an appeal with the IHC challenging his conviction in the case. Later, he submitted a petition in the court seeking bail as an interim relief. The former PM’s lawyer sought bail of his client with a request to the court to separately hear the bail plea. However, the court in its fresh order ruled that the petition will be heard along with the first appeal Mr. Sharif had filed.
Hussain Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister’s elder son, claims that he received a sum of $5.4 million from his grandfather to establish the steel conglomerate in Saudi Arabia. The payment was made by a Qatari royal on the request of the elder Sharif. Thereafter, scrap machinery was transported from their Ahli Steel Mills in Dubai to Jeddah to establish Al-Azizia in 2001.
The JIT constituted to investigate the graft allegations insisted that the real owner of the mills was Nawaz Sharif, and it was being operated by his son on his behalf. Hussain was 29-years-old at the time. The JIT also held that Nawaz Sharif received 97 per cent profit as ‘gifts’ from Hill Metals Establishment, another company established by Hussain Nawaz Sharif in 2005, in Saudi Arabia.
Of the amount, Nawaz Sharif transferred 77 percent to his daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif. (Maryam is not accused in this reference). Here as well, the NAB claims that since Sharif received a large profit from Hussain’s companies, he is the real owner and not his son. However, during the proceedings the NAB could not substantiate its claim through documentary evidences and instead placed the burden of proof on the accused.