Arrest warrants against former Pakistan PM's children

An anti-corruption court in Pakistan issued arrest warrants on Tuesday against the three children and son-in-law of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after they failed to appear for a hearing.

The court also announced that it would indict next week Nawaz Sharif for corruption, reports Efe news.

"Judge Mohammed Bashir issued arrest warrants with possibility of bail against his children Hasan, Husain and Maryam and her (Maryam's) husband Mohamed Safdar Awan because they did not appear before the court and ordered them to do so on October 2," the court's spokesperson Mohamed Irfan said.

The bail amount was fixed at 1 million rupees ($9,490) for each.

Khawaja Haris, the lawyer of the Sharifs, argued that Sharif's children could not appear before the court as they were in London with their mother Kulsoom, who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

The former Prime Minister, after missing the first hearing on September 19 because he was in London, attended Tuesday's hearing to request permission to miss the next hearing due to his wife's illness.

The judge said the court would indict him on corruption charges on October 2, for which his presence would be necessary. After that it would decide if he was required to continue to appear for the hearings.

The Sharifs had been summoned before the court on September 15 after the National Accountability Bureau, an anti-corruption body, opened three cases against them following an order by the Supreme Court on July 28.

The three cases are related to ownership of property at an exclusive zone in London, the creation of the firms Azizia Steel and Hill Metal and the Flagship investment firm as well as another 15 companies.

On July 28, Sharif was disqualified from serving as Prime Minister for not declaring income from his son's company, following investigations into the so-called Panama Papers.

--IANS

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