Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Monday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to provide the court as well as counsel for ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif a copy of testimony of its witness Afaq Ahmad, who had recorded his statement before the Supreme Court’s formed Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which probed the Panama Papers case.

As judge Muhammad Bashir resumed the hearing on the graft references against the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar, he was requested by the defence side to defer the proceedings till 11am, which he accepted and suspended the proceedings.

When the court restarted the hearing, Khawaja Haris Ahmad, senior counsel for the ousted premier, submitted a written request in the court seeking direction to the NAB to provide him a verified copy of the prosecution witness Afaq Ahmad’s statement before the JIT in the Flagship Investments reference.

NAB’s prosecutor stated that the copy of Afaq Ahmad’s statement was not available with the bureau, however it would be acquired from the Supreme Court, for which time was required. The judge then directed the prosecutor to acquire the ‘certified copy’ and provide it to the court as well as Khawaja Haris.

During the proceedings, Khawaja Haris cross-examined one of the prosecution witnesses, Malik Tayyab Ahmad, an employee of Standard Chartered Bank, who had submitted before the court details of Nawaz Sharif’s foreign and local bank accounts and transactions and also kept recording his statement for four consecutive days.

To a query by Khawaja Haris, Malik Tayyab Ahmad stated that he did not know whether Mr Sharif had issued cheques to his children or otherwise, however his testimony was purely based on the bank record available with him.

The court also recorded the statement of another prosecution witness, Adeel Akhtar, an Assistant Director of the NAB. The court directed NAB to produce two more witnesses Shakeel Anjum and Yasir Shabbir in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference on next hearing. Later, the court adjourned the hearing of all the three references until December 19.

During the hearing, Capt (r) Safdar was present in the court. However Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz did not turn up, as they were exempted by the court from personal appearance till December 11 and December 15, respectively.

The Supreme Court in its July 28, 2017, verdict in the Panama Papers case had disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and directed NAB to file references against Nawaz Sharif and his children in six weeks and the accountability court was directed to decide the references within six months.

Published in Daily Times, December 12^th 2017.