Chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday formed a full bench to hear a petition seeking the revocation of the punishment handed to the Sharif family members in the Avenfield properties corruption reference.

On July 6, an accountability court had awarded a 10-year prison sentence to former PM Nawaz Sharif for owning assets beyond known income. His daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Safdar were also handed seven and one-year sentences respectively.

The convictions, delivered under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, were subsequently challenged in the LHC by senior lawyer AK Dogar, who contends that the ordinance was promulgated by former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf under Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) No 1 of 1999 as well as order No 9 of 1999.

The petitioner pleads that the former prime minister and others were convicted by a court which has no jurisdiction because the law under which it (the court) has been created is a "dead law".

He further states that the high court should therefore suspend the operation of the accountability court’s judgment.

The LHC chief justice today formed a full, three-member bench comprising Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza, Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Mujahid Mustaqeem.

The hearing on Dogar's petition will take place on August 8.