Recorder report

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd) appeared before Accountabi-lity Court judge Muhammad Bashir amid tight security arrangements.

At the outset of proceedings, notes prepared by the prosecution witness for arguments were handed over to Sharif family’s counsel Haris. Radley said that he was consulting his notes during Thursday’s hearing.

NAB Prosecutor Imran Shafiq requested the court to make notes of Radley part of court’s record.

Radley said that any operator or IT expert can download pre-released Window Vista Beta version and use it.

It is correct that for downloading Window Beta Vista, the user must have technical ability to download and run it.

Windows introduced six fonts between 2002 and 2006, Haris noted, questioning the witness if he had stated the same in his report.

After 2005, Microsoft had introduced six fonts and Calibri font was one of them. There are different types of Calibri fonts and it has not been mentioned in the report, Radley said.

Haris asked the witness if the creator of the Calibri font was given an award for his services in the field of IT. Radley replied in the affirmative.

Radley further told the court that he had received the documents, two trust deeds, on July 6, 2017 to compile a report; however, time was too short to draft a comprehensive report, adding he can make 10 times more detailed report.

Haris raised question, “Due to shortage of time you have not prepared correct report?”

The witness replied in the negative, saying this expression is wrong. “Shortage of time did not affect the quality of the report but it affected the extent to which I could have explained every point,” he added.

The defence counsel asked the witness if he was an IT expert. To this, Radley replied that he is not a computer expert but he has fairly decent knowledge of computer.

The witness told the court that he wanted to change his statement. To this, Haris told him that his statement was recorded a day earlier and now he was to be cross-examined.

Radley said, “It is correct that second and third pages of both the declarations were identical as per my first report. I did not go through the contents of two documents and used the method of video spectral comparator to determine whether or not the two documents were identical.” He added that electronic comparison is better than visual comparison.

The witness said that he has used video spectral comparator in respect of two scanned documents for comparison for the purposes of superimposition of the documents. “I have modified the size of the documents but I have not mentioned specifically in my report that for purpose of superimposition, I modified size of two documents to ascertain whether or not they are identical,” he said.

Another UK-based witness Akhtar Fayaz Raja, Principal Quist solicitors, also recorded his statement via a video-link from Pakistan High Commission in the UK. He told the court that he works in his law firm established in 1994.

Raja said that he was engaged on May 12, 2017 by a Joint Investigation Team that probed the Panama Papers case to provide legal service related to Supreme Court proceedings.

He said that after he was engaged, he received copies of bundle of papers submitted before the Supreme Court. After receiving the papers, he discovered a letter dated January 5, 2017 from an English firm and two letters by a solicitor namely German Frimen in which he referred to two trust declaration deeds. The first declaration was related to companies Nelson and Nescol and the second declaration was related to a company namely Comber Group. He said that Frimen stated that Hussain Nawaz came to his office carrying these declarations and signed them.

The witness said that he found copies of both declarations in bundle of papers. “I looked at the documents carefully and there were many irregularities in them,” he said, adding that these documents appeared to be forged.

He said that the JIT instructed him to appoint an expert as these documents deserved expert examination. “I had recommended Radley to JIT and provided copies of documents to Radley.” Raja said he had provided first report to Radley on July 4, 2017, adding that on July 5 the JIT had informed him they were sending further portion of the documents, the two trust deeds. The report prepared and signed by Radley was sealed in his laboratory in his presence and delivered to the JIT.

The defence counsel Amjad Pervez and Khawaja Haris cross-examined Akhtar Raja. The court after completion of cross-examination of Raja adjourned hearing till March 2.