Court suspends Nawaz Sharif’s arrest warrants in toshakhana case

ISLAMABAD: An Accountability Court (AC) on Thursday suspended the perpetual arrest warrants of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif in the Toshakhana case and stopped the authorities from arresting him on his arrival from abroad.

The court said that the arrest warrants would be restored if the petitioner failed to appear before it till October 24.

AC-I Judge Muhammad Bashir heard the petition filed by the former prime minister’s lawyer Qazi Misbah Advocate. The lawyer said that his client wanted to surrender before the court as he was arriving back on October 21, the official news agency reported.

During the hearing, the court sought the record of the case against the PML-N leader. On the query of the court, the lawyer said that Nawaz Sharif had left the country to get medical treatment, adding that his fresh medical report had also been attached with the case.

The NAB prosecutor said that they had no objection to the suspension of arrest warrants of the petitioner if he wanted to surrender before the court.

On the query about former president Asif Ali Zardari, the lawyer said that he was appearing before the court through a pleader. The lawyer said so far no arrest had been made in the Toshakhana case, adding that he would give arguments in detail on October 24.

After hearing the arguments, the court reserved the verdict on the petition and later suspended the perpetual arrest warrants of Nawaz Sharif till October 24.

It may be mentioned here that the NAB had named PML-N’s leader Nawaz Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani as accused in a reference pertaining to receiving vehicles from Toshakhana during the regime of PPP.