Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court on Thursday formally indicted ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar in the Avenfield properties graft reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against them following the Supreme Court’s July 28 orders in the Panama Papers case.

After hearing the charge sheet read out by judge Muhammad Bashir, all the accused rejected the charges, pleaded ‘not guilty and vowed to contest the case.

The charge sheet states that the accused remained unsuccessful in showing the sources of income used to purchase the Avenfield properties in London. It further states that the trust deeds of 2006 of the Avenfield properties were found to be fake, and that the accused submitted bogus documents in the Supreme Court during the hearing of Panama Papers case.

Maryam and Safdar were present in the court, while Nawaz Sharif was represented by Zafir Khan, who was nominated by Sharif’s legal team as his pleader.

The court rejected three applications filed by the accused separately, seeking suspension of the proceedings and halting the indictment.

Through a plea, Ayesha Hamid, counsel for Nawaz Sharif, requested the court to defer hearing of the references till decision of the Supreme Court on their pending plea seeking to club the multiple references into one. However, the court dismissed the plea.

The court also rejected the applications of Maryam and Capt (r) Safdar filed through their counsel Amjad Pervez, contending that they were not provided complete record of the graft reference, including copies of the statements of three witnesses and Volume-X of the joint investigation team (JIT) report, which probed the Panama Papers case, thus the indictment should be halted.

NAB prosecutors, however, argued that Volume-X of the JIT report did not bar the indictment and requested the court to indict the accused.

The court dismissed yet another plea of Sharif’s counsel, requesting that all the three references should be combined into one instead of indicting his client in each reference separately. He contended that even the witnesses in the three references were common.

In its order, the court held that the trial in Avenfield reference will start on October 26 and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP) joint registrar Sidra Mansoor will record her statement as the first prosecution witness in the reference.

After the indictment, Sharif’s pleader Zafir Khan pleaded not guilty and read out a statement on Sharif’s behalf, which stated, “I do not plead guilty. Charges are not only groundless, baseless and unfounded, but also frivolous, and on top of that we are being denied our right to fair trial. The charges are being framed on a report that is incomplete and controversial. It will go down in history as a mockery of justice and travesty of justice. Moreover, the charges are being framed without awaiting the detailed order of the Supreme Court in the review petitions.”

Maryam is facing charges of being a beneficial owner of the Avenfield properties in London, whereas Capt (r) Safdar is being tried being an accomplice of Maryam in acquiring these properties.

On Thursday, Nawaz Sharif was indicted in the Avenfield, Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment references, whereas he will be indicted in the Flagship Investment Limited reference today (Friday).

The court will resume hearing on the Avenfield properties and Azizia Steel Mills references on October 26, when NAB prosecution team will produce its first witness, Jamshaid Ahmad.

Published in Daily Times, October 20^th 2017.