News Desk |
Incarcerated former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) against the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to reject his bail in the Al-Azizia case. On Monday, IHC had rejected Nawaz’s bail petition seeking suspension of the sentence handed to him in the Al-Azizia case verdict on medical grounds.
The court maintained that all medical facilities were available to Nawaz, and hence, his demand for bail was not justified. An accountability court of Islamabad had on December 24, 2018, convicted Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment and a hefty fine.
On February 25th, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had dismissed a bail petition filed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on medical grounds in Al-Azizia reference case. An IHC bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the verdict while the detailed judgment was uploaded on the website of the IHC.
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Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders on Monday vowed to file an appeal against the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision, GVS earlier reported. The nine-page judgment was very detailed in its observation on Nawaz’s health. Four reasons have been seen as the basis of the decision:
1 -The IHC cites a recent judgment by the Supreme Court in the case, Tallat Ishaq Vs. National Accountability Bureau (NAB), in which the apex court wrote that a high court may grant bail to an accused person arrested under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 “in extraordinary circumstances and not in the run of the mill cases or as a matter of course.”
2 – In another case, the SC stated that a high court shall exercise this “power sparingly in rare and exceptional circumstances for valid reasons to be recorded in writing” or in cases of extreme hardship.
3 – The IHC judges noted that none of the medical reports of Nawaz Sharif suggest that his continued incarceration would be detrimental to his life. “In fact, the reports of Board of Doctors and various Teams constituted, are indicative of the fact that petitioner is receiving best possible medical treatment available to any individual in Pakistan.”
4 – The court then added that state authorities followed the Prisons Rules and moved the convicted prisoner to a hospital outside the prison for operative or other special treatment without lapse.