Daily Times

Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Haris on Wednesday alleged that the JIT probing the Panama Papers case did not conduct a transparent probe in the Avenfield reference.

As the hearing started, the defence lawyer read the content of a NAB notice sent to Nawaz Sharif on August 18, 2017. He informed the court that his client had never refused to respond to any NAB notice. “The notice asked my client to appear for verification of the statement given to the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the Panama Papers case,” Haris informed the court. Nawaz had given a statement to the investigation team in his defence, he said. “We did not tell the NAB that we do not want to respond to the notice,” he contended, adding that the first notice sent by the anti-graft body was to inquire the accused of their defence.

Furthermore, Nawaz’s lawyer informed the court that a detailed response to the notice had been sent to NAB. “Why were we being asked for defence [by NAB]?” Haris asked the court. He said that the anti-graft body had not conducted any investigation. The prosecution itself admitted that there was no option available save for filing a reference, he said.

The counsel said the points that could have benefitted the accused were not touched by the investigation committee. He added that there was a link between the Qatari letters and the bank transactions.

The defence lawyer alleged that the JIT did not clearly explain the relevant record in the letters written to the Qatari royal family. He added that nowhere was the transaction record or agreement mentioned in the letters. Later the hearing was adjourned for a day. Nawaz and his family are facing three corruption cases in the accountability court after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed references against them in light of the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Panama Papers case last year.

Published in Daily Times, June 28^th 2018.