Pakistan's High Court, on Wednesday, ordered the release of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar. The court also suspended the sentences they received from an accountability court in July, media reports said.
The ousted prime minister and daughter were sentenced to ten-year and seven-year jail terms over corrupt practices linked to the family-owned London flats in Avenfield.
The court was hearing their appeals against the verdict announced by the accountability court on July 6. Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb suspended their sentence. But the accountability court's verdict stands and only the sentences have been suspended.
The trio will be released from prison after completion of formalities. They have been asked to pay half a million rupees each.
The accountability court, on July 6, had announced the verdict in the Avenfield properties corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), sentencing the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in jail for owning assets beyond known income, and one year for not cooperating with the NAB.
His daughter was given seven years for abetment after she was found "instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father" and one year for non-cooperation with the bureau.
According to the verdict, she "aided, assisted, abetted, attempted and acted in conspiracy with her father". "The trust deeds produced by the accused Maryam Nawaz were also found bogus," the judgement noted.
Nawaz's son-in-law was given one year jail time—for not cooperating with NAB, and aiding and abeting Nawaz and Maryam.
