By Hamid Khan Wazir
ISLAMABAD: The Officers of Pakistan High Commission (PHC) in the UK have spilled the beans pertaining to the non-implementation of the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) orders regarding delivering an arrest warrant of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif at his London residence.
The official statements showed that the officers made attempts to ensure the implementation of the Court’s orders but yielded no results.
According to the written statements, copies of which are available with this scribe showed that the PHC Officers tried their level best to ensure delivery of the arrest warrant of the ex-prime minister but they could not succeed because a servant of Sharif’s family refused to receive the warrant at the eleventh hour.
The first Secretary Dildar Ali Abro was called by Waqar Ahmed, Secretary to the sons of Nawaz Sharif, for receiving the warrant at Nawaz’s residence i.e., Flat No. 16, 118-Park Lane, London. However, he said, “I conveyed to him that I would be able to confirm about serving of Court’s Orders in person after seeking approval from the Head of Mission.” The statement reads, “I conveyed my conversation with Waqar to the High Commissioner and sought his permission to serve the Court Orders at the Appellant’s at the given address.”
He said that the High Commissioner allowed that Court Orders may be served in person. Subsequently, it was agreed with Waqar that the latter would receive the Court Orders through Rao Abdul Hanan, Consular Attach at High Commissioner at 11:00 hrs on September 23, 2020.
However, Abro states that at around 10:20 am, Waqar called me and regretted about his earlier offer of receiving of the Court Orders at Nawaz’s residence.
Earlier, another officer Rao Abdul Hannan stated that he went to Nawaz’s residence at 06:35 pm on September 17 along with the warrant but his personal servant Yaqoob had refused to receive it. Hence these warrants could not be delivered by hand.
On the other hand, the IHC is all set to begin proceedings to declare the PML-N supremo as a proclaimed offender in Al-Azizia and Avenfield references.
Earlier, the Court had begun proceedings to declare Nawaz Sharif as a proclaimed offender in Al-Azizia and Avenfield references and decided to record testimonies of the officers who were given the task for implementation of the arrest warrant of Nawaz Sharif through the United Kingdom’s County Court.
Notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the federal government were also issued to submit a reply till October 7.
The IHC judge Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani remarked that Nawaz Sharif’s behavior is shameful. PML-N supremo’s departure to the UK is an insult to the entire system, he added.
The IHC had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Nawaz Sharif for September 22 and rejected his plea seeking exemption from the hearing.
The Court had also directed the concerned authorities to initiate proceedings to declare him as proclaimed offender.
The PML-N supremo’s petition to continue the case hearings through legal representative was also turned down by the IHC.
