Court completes final arguments in Avenfield trial

Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has completed final arguments in the London-based Avenfield reference trial against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

NAB's Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi concluded arguments, saying that the prosecution's work was to prove ownership of the Avenfield Apartments by the accused (Nawaz Sharif and his family) and added it had been proved through 'independent evidence,' reported the Express Tribune.

The ownership of the London flats has been proved through correspondence between the Financial Investigation Agency (FIA) of British Virgin Island (BVI) with the Mossack Fonseca in 2012, which was obtained by the JIT in 2017.

According to the prosecutor, the report said, all agencies of the world could not have found about the ownership of the Park Lane Apartments had the UK authorities not made it compulsory to declare properties in 2006.

Sharif, his sons Hasan and Hussain, daughter Maryam, son-in-law Capt (retd) Mohammad Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar are facing multiple corruption references in the accountability court.

The Pakistan Supreme Court had, on July 28 last year, disqualified Sharif from holding the office of the prime minister and asked the National Accountability Bureau to file references against the Sharif family in connection with corruption cases against them.

On the orders of the country's Supreme Court, a JIT was formed last year to probe the allegations on the Sharif family.