Legal experts are of the view that since the appeal against Accountability Court judgement in Avenfield apartments' reference is pending in Islamabad High Court (IHC); therefore, till its final verdict vice president PML-N Maryam Nawaz can't be punished again in the same case. Barrister Masroor said that issue of trust deed submitted by Maryam Nawaz has already been extensively discussed in Avenfield Apartments' judgement.
Accountability Court (AC) on July 06, 2018 sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd) for 10, 7 and one years respectively, in the Avenfield properties reference case. The convicts challenged the AC verdict in the IHC, which has suspended the sentence, released them on bail while the appeals are pending for hearing.
Barrister Masroor said under the Article 13 of the Constitution, no one can be punished in the same offence. The Article 13(a) says; "No person shall be prosecuted or punished for the same offence more than once." Former Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Zulfiqar Bhutta said that during the pendency of the appeal, the trial court can't hear the 'trust deed' issue till the final decision on Avenfield Apartments by the apex court.
He added that either party may approach the Supreme Court in case IHC decision is not in its favour. Judge Muhammad Bashir of Accountability Court, Islamabad, on Tuesday summoned Maryam Nawaz on July 19 to appear in a matter related to the fake trust deed in the Avenfield Apartments case. According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the trust deed Maryam presented in the Avenfield case is fake, and NAB has requested a trial against the PML-N leader for fraudulent documents.
Ramzan Chaudhry, a senior lawyer, said if the NAB had filed a petition that Maryam Nawaz filed fake trust deed then the trial court can issue notice. He said that the NAB under the Sections 420, 467 and 468 of Pakistan Penal Code can file a petition against any person for providing forged or fraudulent documents. In 2017, a Pakistani team investigating former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's alleged illegal offshore properties - flagged in the Panama Papers- released its final report that mentioned that Microsoft's 'Calibri' font was not in practice when the trust deed was made.
That report surmised that some of the documents it received from Maryam were forged, because they used Microsoft's 'Calibri' font which was not available for public use in 2006. Microsoft only released it for public use back in 2007. In the judgement, the AC noted that Maryam Nawaz filed a false and fabricated trust deed on 02-02-2006 in Calibri font whereas no such font was available for such purposes of that deed during that year.
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