PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif and her husband Captain (retd) Safdar have been exonerated in the Avenfield case by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
The specifics state that Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani presided over today’s session as a two-member bench. Maryam Nawaz had appealed the case’s decision to sentence her to seven years in prison. The IHC had reserved its decision and today during the hearing said that it will overturn the punishment given to Maryam Nawaz by an accountability court.
No documentation that could be connected to Maryam and Nawaz Sharif’s properties, according to Justice Farooq, has been submitted thus far. In the meantime, Justice Kayani noted that the NAB had built its whole case against Maryam on the basis of paperwork, noting that just because a property was registered in a daughter’s name did not imply that the father owned it.
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On corruption accusations involving four opulent London apartments, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sentenced the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to ten years in prison and his daughter Maryam to seven years in jail back in 2018.
“We had already warned the Nation”
اللہ تعالیٰ کا شکر ہے اللہ تعالیٰ نے آپکو آج سرخرو کیا اور آپکے مخالفین کو ناکام و نامراد کیا ہے…
مریم نواز کی اپنے والد میاں محمد نواز شریف سے بریت کے بعد گفتگو pic.twitter.com/ehKj5FMCbH— PMLN (@pmln_org) September 29, 2022
While the PMLN rejoiced, the PTI responded to the news by labelling Maryam’s acquittal “NRO 2.”
We had already warned the Nation regarding the shameful details of NRO 2 and NAB Amendments, which involved closure of cases against Maryam Nawaz. Rs1110 billion of this country are being looted! #این_آر_او_ٹو_نامنظور pic.twitter.com/2w1TcbrY7P
— PTI (@PTIofficial) September 29, 2022
It is pertinent to note that the PMLN administration selected former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Aftab Sultan as the new chairman of the NAB back in July, just after seizing control by violently toppling the PTI. Since then, the PTI and its allies have predicted that an NRO 2 will be put into effect.
NRO 1
Ishaq Dar’s April 25, 2000, confession statement, in which he acknowledged his role in laundering money to the tune of $14.86 million on behalf of the Sharifs through bogus accounts, served as the foundation for the 2000 Hudaibiya Paper Mills money laundering reference. The then-chairman of the NAB did, however, pardon the witness.
The National Reconciliation Ordinance, or NRO, was published in October 2007 by the administration of the time’s president, Musharraf. The act allowed for the dismissal of cases against politicians, which allowed many of them to reenter the nation.
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Every other money laundering case after the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case was modelled after it. Money laundering investigations against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chair Asif Ali Zardari received the same treatment as a result of the Hudaibiya precedent.
On December 16, 2009, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. However, recent events like Ishaq Dar’s return and Maryam Nawaz’s acquittal have many wondering if an NRO 2 is actually happening.