Islamabad High Court rejects bail plea of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law retired Captain Muhammad Safdar. The three have been lodged in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi in connection with corruption allegations concerning Avenfield properties.

While rejecting the bail plea, the two-judge division bench sought a response from Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau on a petition seeking quashing of quash against Nawaz and his family. The plea was rejected by the bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kyani.

News agency ANI reported that the High Court bench has also directed the authorities to submit full record of the judgement in the Avenfield case.

This comes even as Nawaz’s brother and PML-N chief Shahbaz Sharif wrote a letter alleging that the former Pakistan prime minister was kept in an “abysmal condition” in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. He claimed that Nawaz Sharif was deprived of basic facilities like newspaper and bed.

The letter was written by Shahbaz to caretaker chief minister of Punjab Hasan Askari Rizvi. It came after Shahbaz, Sharif's younger brother and former chief minister of the province, visited Sharif with his family on Saturday.

"I want to draw your attention to the abysmal conditions under which Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is languishing in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi," he had written.

Sharif, 68, and his daughter Maryam, 44, were arrested in Lahore on July 13 on their arrival from London after an accountability court found them guilty over his family's ownership of four luxury flats in London. They were later taken to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.