ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – An accountability court (AC) in Islamabad on Tuesday completed proceedings of Avenfield reference against Sharif family and the verdict in the case will be announced on July-6 [Friday].

AC had commenced hearing of the reference on 14th of September, 2017.

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The reference against Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Capt (retd) Safdar, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz was filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on directives of Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) in the light of landmark verdict in Panama case. Initially, the country’s top court had given six-month deadline to AC for summing up proceedings but the deadline had been extended thrice on the request of judge.

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Sharif, his political heir-apparent Maryam Nawaz and Capt (retd) Safdar attended the proceedings whereas Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz—who permanently reside in London—have avoided the court’s hearings and had been declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

The accountability watchdog had filed graft references pertaining to Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, offshore companies including Flagship Investment Limited, and Avenfield properties of London.

During case proceedings, statements of eighteen witnesses were recorded including Panamagate Joint Investigation Team Head Wajid Zia.

Nawaz Sharif registered first appearance before court on September-26 last year. Later, non-bailable arrest warrants for Nawaz Sharif were issued on October-26, 2017 over incessantly not appearing before court.

Maryam Nawaz and his better half were indicted on 19th of Oct-2017 whereas ousted Nawaz was directly indicted on Nov-8.

It is worth here to mention verdicts of Sharif’s ouster and Kh Asif’s disqualification [later quashed by SC] had also been announced on Friday.