ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruled on Thursday that Capt. (ret.) Muhammad Safdar and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s conviction in the Avenfield case lacked “justification or basis.”The IHC stated in a 41-page detailed ruling that “…the prosecution has not been able to prove its case against [Maryam and Safdar] and the conviction recorded against [them] is without rationale or validity.”
Just before the 2018 General Elections, an accountability court fined Maryam £2 million and gave her concurrent sentences of seven years for being “instrumental in concealing the properties of her father” and one year for refusing to cooperate with the bureau. Both sentences were to run concurrently.
Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N supremo, was also given a 10-year prison term for having assets that were out of proportion to his known sources of income, and Maryam’s husband received a two-year sentence of solitary confinement.While Maryam was visiting her father in jail in August 2019, she was detained in connection with the matter. Later, in November 2019, a neighbourhood court issued bail.
