ISLAMABAD: Nov 14 (INP) Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday challenged the accountability court’s Nov 08 verdict, rejecting his request to conduct a single trial on all three references against him, in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Nawaz has challenged the decision in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) through his lawyer Azam Tarar, stating that the verdict was given in haste and the accountability court did not take into account the points in the earlier IHC verdict. The petition pleads the IHC to direct the accountability court “to frame one charge and conduct a single trial” against the Sharif family in the three corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau. The IHC should also suspend accountability court proceedings till the framing of a joint charge against the Sharifs, the petition requests. On Nov 8, the accountability court’s Judge Muhammad Bashir rejected the Sharif’s application for joint trial and framed charges against him in each of the three references. The three references related to the Sharif family’s London flats, Flagship Investment Ltd and Al Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment. The former prime minister rejected all corruption charges while pleading not guilty and opted to contest them. Earlier a bench of the IHC granted Sharif’s request with regard to clubbing together the three corruption references filed against him, and revoked the accountability court’s Oct 19 verdict, directing it to reconsider the request. In his plea, Sharif’s lawyer had argued that the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case had not asked the NAB to file the references separately. Thus, he added, separate references can not be filed against him, requesting the court to club together all three references. Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (retd) Safdar have been nominated in a single corruption reference in connection with the Sharif family’s London properties. The petitioner has also requested the IHC to take up the plea as soon as possible and dismiss the trial court's order. INP/AH