FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability on Court Tuesday accepted a supplementary reference filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his sons, daughter and son-in-law in connection with the Avenfield properties reference.

Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir rejected Sharif’s plea against NAB’s supplementary reference wherein Sharif, his sons Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd) are accused. The court summoned five prosecution witnesses regarding the supplementary reference on Feb 6.

NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi informed the Accountability Court Judge that in the supplementary reference, seven new witnesses have been included; of them two are from the United Kingdom.

The witnesses include Robert W Radley, Principal, Radley Forensic Document Laboratory and forensic handwriting and document examination expert, Ahktar Raja, Principal Quist solicitors, Syed Mubashir Tuqeer, an officer of Ministry of Information, Muhammad Sultan Nazir, Deputy Director NAB, Lahore, Waqas Ahmad, an employee of a private TV channel, Director General Electronic Media Abdul Waheed Khan and Assistant Director NAB Zavir Mehmood.

The NAB deputy prosecutor general also filed an application before the court, requesting it to allow examining two witnesses who are from the United Kingdom via a video link.

The witnesses are completely willing to submit to the court’s process and make themselves available for examination and cross-examination; however, they have expressed serious concern over traveling to Pakistan, he said, adding that the NAB has been pursuing the said witnesses to travel to Pakistan to recording their statements; however, they expressed inability to appear in person before the court. The witnesses have sought indulgence of recording their testimony through a video link, on grounds of serious security threats, he added.

The NAB pleaded before the court that keeping in view the above reasons, the prosecution may be allowed to produce, examine and record the statement of the abovementioned witnesses before the court through a video link/Skype.

To this, Sharif family’s lawyer Amjad Pervez said that he will argue over the application during the next hearing. The court fixed Feb 2 in this regard.

Earlier, Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Muhammad Safdar (retd) arrived at the Accountability Court amid tight security arrangements.

When Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir started hearing, Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris raised many objections on the supplementary reference, saying that there was nothing new in it and this was just a repetition of a previous reference.

He said that Bureau has filed a supplementary reference on the basis of joint investigation team (JIT) report which probed the Panama Papers case and no mutual legal assistance (MLA) report has been filed so far.

Haris said the supplementary reference has not been filed as per the directives of the Supreme Court. Moreover, no new asset has been found. “There is no solid reason of filing of a supplementary reference,” he said, adding that new charges have been framed in the supplementary reference.

He said that according to NAB, a supplementary reference is filed when new evidence is found against the suspects but that is not the case. The supplementary reference has to be filed in reply to a legal consultation, he added.

The counsel for Sharif said the supplementary reference is filed to target Nawaz Sharif and even in that reference, the allegations already levelled in the interim reference have been repeated.

Haris urged the court not to accept the supplementary reference as it has not been filed as per the directives of the apex court.

NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi told the court that the NAB has filed a supplementary reference as per the Supreme Court’s July 28, 2017 judgment; therefore, the defence should not have any objection over it.

Objecting to Haris’ stance, he said the accusations have not been repeated and new evidence is found against the accused.

Judge Mohammad Bashir reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments of both the NAB prosecutor general and defence lawyer.

The court while announcing its verdict observed the charges against the Sharifs would remain the same and summoned five prosecution witnesses regarding the newly-filed supplementary reference.

After the hearing at the Accountability Court, Nawaz Sharif told media persons that the reason behind a slew of cases against him is in front of everyone. “These days everywhere including Accountability Court, high court and the Supreme Court cases are under adjudication against me,” he added.

The Accountability Court also recorded the statement of Director Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Al-Azizia Still Mill reference Afaq Ahmed. Defence lawyer Khawaja Haris cross-examined him.

Ahmed while recording his statement said that the secretary to Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber Al-Thani visited Pakistan Embassy in Doha and handed over a sealed envelope addressed to JIT head Wajid Zia. On the same date, Pakistan Embassy forwarded the envelope along with a covering letter to Ministry of Foreign Affairs through DHL. The envelope was received by Foreign Office on May 30, 2017. On the same date Ministry of Foreign Affairs forwarded the envelope along with a covering letter to the head of JIT.

He said that JIT head sent a letter to secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking him to direct Afaq Ahmed to appear before the JIT on June 1, 2017 and then he appeared before the JIT. “The JIT showed me the covering letter addressed to Wajid Zia along with a sealed envelope and I verified the documents,” he told the court.