ISLAMABAD: Former Panama case joint investigation team (JIT) head Wajid Zia recorded his statement on Tuesday in the Avenfield properties reference and also submitted some documents before the court.
Former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif arrived at the accountability court hearing of corruption cases against him and his family earlier today.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed three interim corruption references against the Sharif family in September last year in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case. The bureau recently filed supplementary references in all three cases as well.
Nawaz, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar have been charged in the Avenfield reference. Later, they left the court after the judge permitted them to do so while the hearing was still underway.
At the last hearing on March 16, Maryam’s counsel Amjad Pervez and Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Haris had questioned the validity of the evidence being presented by Zia and objected that they were the copies of photocopies and unverified documents.
In a previous hearing, the judge had also partially approved the appeal by Maryam’s counsel to not make the entire JIT report part of the court record, as Zia had requested.
The former JIT head has been recording his statement in the case for the last three hearings. He has also submitted in court several key documents that the JIT got hold of during its investigation of the Sharif family’s assets.
The trial against the Sharif family had initiated on September 14, 2017.
The corruption cases against the Sharif family are related to the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, offshore companies including Flagship Investment Ltd, and Avenfield properties of London.
Nawaz Sharif and his sons Hussain and Hassan, based abroad, are accused in all three references whereas his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar are indicted in the Avenfield reference only.
Hassan and Hussain have been declared as proclaimed offenders by the court as they have not been attending the proceedings since the case began last year.