Islamabad: Officials posted at the Pakistani High Commission in the United Kingdom on Wednesday informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that a representative of Nawaz Sharif had initially agreed to receive the arrest warrants against the PML-N supremo, but changed his mind minutes before their arrival at the former Prime Minister’s Park Lane residence.
In a written reply submitted to the Court, First Secretary of the High Commission Dildar Ali Abro said that Waqar Ahmed, a Secretary to Nawaz Sharif’s son, called him and informed him that he will receive the warrants for the former Prime Minister, Geotv reported.
Abro told the court that Waqar initially agreed to receive the warrants at Nawaz Sharif’s Park Lane residence in London. He then informed the High Commission of Waqar’s response, adding that the mission then allowed him to serve the warrants at the address.
“It was agreed with Waqar that he would receive the warrants on September 23 at 11 a.m.,” Abro told the court. He added that Waqar was also informed that the mission’s Consular Attache Rao Abdul Hanan would hand over the warrants.
“At 10:20 a.m. Waqar called me to apologise and declined to receive the warrants,” Abro told the court.
On the other hand, Hanan, in his statement, said that he had initially gone to the residence of the former premier on September 17 at 6.35 p.m. to serve the warrants. He added that a domestic employee of Nawaz Sharif, Muhammad Yaqoob, had declined to receive the warrants, which is why the warrant could not be delivered to the former premier.
The Islamabad High Court had, in its last hearing, directed the High Commission’s attache Rao Abdul Hanan to record a statement in the next hearing of the case via a video link.
During the same hearing, the IHC had observed that Nawaz Sharif’s exit from Pakistan was a “mockery of the system” after Additional Attorney General Tariq Khokhar presented a compliance report on Nawaz Sharif’s arrest warrants issued by the high court.
The report was submitted to the two-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Aamer Farooq, who are hearing a petition filed by the former prime minister against his sentence in the Avenfield case. (IANS)
