ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in the federal capital on Friday adjourned the hearing of a case pertaining to the Sharif family’s London-based Avenfield properties.
Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir adjourned the hearing till Tuesday when Wajid Zia, head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), will continue his testimony.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Muhammad Safdar appeared before the court.
Sharif along with his sons – Hussain and Hassan – has been named in three references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in compliance with the Supreme Court’s landmark July 28 verdict last year, while his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt. Safdar have been nominated in the Avenfield properties reference.
The JIT head presented the original Qatari letter to the judge, which bore seal of the Supreme Court.
After going through the letter, the judge observed that the letter was different from the one which he had submitted a day earlier.
Zia explained the letter he submitted earlier was received from the Foreign Office via fax, whereas he himself brought the original one from the Supreme Court bearing its seal.
Amjad Pervez, Maryam’s lawyer, objected that documents submitted by the witness were not admissible evidence as it was unclear from where they have been acquired.
A contract reached between Al Taufeeq and Hudaibiya Paper Mills as well as land registry of London Flats and Nescol Company were submitted to the court, which were made part of court record.
At the previous hearing, Wajid Zia, appeared before the court and started recording his statement. As he began recording his testimony, Sharif’s counsel Ayesha Hamid raised objection on submission of documents bearing signatures of Irfan Mangi, a NAB official.
The counsel contended that the NAB official, a witness in the case, was not present in the courtroom, hence Zia couldn’t submit those documents.
Maryam’s lawyer Amjad Pervez requested the judge to exempt his client from personal appearance.
He also filed a plea opposing the inclusion of Panamagate JIT probe report as evidence in the Avenfield property reference filed against the former premier and his family members.
The defence lawyer objected to the inclusion of the entire JIT report as evidence and asserted that only volume 3, 4 and 5 of the JIT report were relevant to the case.
He contended that the investigator, Wajid Zia, couldn’t present the JIT report as evidence since he had been supervising the entire probe against the former premier.
“This will be a breach of law, besides the Supreme Court has granted this right to the defendant side to challenge the veracity of the report,” the defence lawyer argued.
He maintained that the court should take a decision over the relevance of JIT report volumes with regard to the three references filed against Nawaz Sharif and his family members.
NAB deputy prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar opposed the objections raised by the defence lawyer.
The prosecutor said the report compiled by the Panamagate JIT comprised of public documents. “How three volumes of the report [according to defence lawyer] could be relevant and not others,” he questioned.
He argued that the JIT report is key evidence against Sharifs, besides the formation of JIT and its compiled report were never challenged at any platform earlier.
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