LAHORE: A civil court on Monday summoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif and vice-president Maryam Nawaz to appear before the court in a case against them for allegedly encroaching upon 4,000 acres of land in Jati Umra.

Senior Civil Judge Fozia Saira, hearing an application filed by Punjab University Professor Dr Abdul Rauf, directed both of them to appear before the court on August 20.

The applicant alleged that the Sharif family had encroached upon his forefathers’ thousands of acres of land in Jati Umra which they had purchased from the then government from 1911 to 1912.

The actual owner of the land in question, Pir Buksh, is still alive, he said.

Abdul Rauf claimed that he had documentary evidence that can be made part of the court’s proceedings and pleaded with the judge to issue directives for removal of encroachment from the land.

He further demanded that the Sharif family pay a sum of Rs50 billion as financial damages he suffered because of the illegal occupation of the land.

It is noteworthy that Maryam Nawaz is facing a land acquisition inquiry instituted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly acquiring 200 hundred acres of land in Raiwind in 2013 in violation of rules.