Produce ex-PM Nawaz Sharif next week: Pakistan HC official to foreign secretary

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani high court official on Thursday asked the foreign secretary to produce deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif before the court on September 22.

Sharif, 70, has been in London since November last year after the Lahore High Court granted him permission to go abroad for four weeks for treatment.

The three-time premier, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were convicted in the Avenfield properties case on July 6, 2018.

Sharif was also sentenced to seven years in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case in December 2018.

But Sharif was bailed out in both cases and also allowed to go to London for medical treatment.

He was given eight weeks to return but he failed to come back due to health complications, according to his lawyer.

The Islamabad High Court on September 15 issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Sharif for failing to surrender before the court as he was directed.

The court's assistant registrar wrote a letter to the foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood that he should "cause the production of appellant (Sharif) through the High Commission of Pakistan in the United Kingdom" by 11 AM on September 22.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was hearing Sharif's appeal against his conviction in Al-Azizia steel mills case.

Sharif was serving a seven-year prison sentence in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail before being allowed to go to the UK.