News @ 3 - 28th Oct 2017

ISLAMABAD: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer requested the top court to fix his appeal against the Registrar Office’s objections over his petition for hearing at the earliest.

Sharif through his lawyer has filed an application, asking the court to fix the appeal on Nov 2 as the matter relates to fundamental rights.

Earlier, he had filed the appeal challenging the Registrar Office’s order to return his constitutional petition through which he sought consolidation of three references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against him and his children.

The Registrar Office of the apex court on October 20 returned Sharif’s constitutional petition by raising objections.

Afterwards, his counsel filed an appeal against the objections, contending that there was no constitutional bar on any citizen to approach to the court, requesting the court to fix the petition for hearing.

In his petition, the former prime minister asked the court to declare that multiple trials on a single charge would be prejudice against his fundamental rights and fair trial. It was further requested to suspend the proceedings of the court until the filing of a consolidated reference by NAB.

In Sept, a larger bench of Supreme Court had dismissed the Sharif family’s petition seeking review of the July 28 apex court verdict that disqualified Sharif and ordered NAB to file three separate references against him.

The accountability court had indicted Nawaz Sharif in three references through his pleader. It will start recording statements of prosecution witnesses from Nov 3.