Wajid Zia told to testify against Dar on 12th as court yet to receive JIT report

ISLAMABAD: The former head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in the Panama Papers case, Wajid Zia, could not record his statement in court in relation to the graft reference filed against ex-finance minister Senator Ishaq Dar on Thursday, as the court is to acquire the final report of the JIT from the Supreme Court.

The court adjourned the case till February 12 and ordered the JIT chief to reappear.

As the hearing began, Zia informed the court that the final report of the JIT was submitted to the SC, adding that he did not possess the report. In response, the judge observed that they will ask the registrar of the SC one more time to provide the JIT report.

Earlier this month, the judge had asked the prosecution counsel to bring Wajid Zia and investigation officer Nadir Abbas for recording their statements.

NAB Prosecutor Imran Shafique, however, had pleaded the court to summon both these witnesses, but Judge Mohammad Bashir had refused to issue the summons, stating that it was the duty of NAB to bring them to court as they were its witnesses.

In a previous hearing on January 31, NAB prosecutor Imran Shafique had said that SC constituted a JIT to investigate the Panama leaks on April 20, 2017.

The JIT collected voluminous material, recorded numerous statements, prepared its exhaustive report and submitted before the SC, he added while stressing the importance of the JIT report in the case against Dar.

He had further said that Zia is a witness in the reference but the evidence and the original report of JIT along with entire set of volumes is lying with SC.

It may be mentioned here that Wajid Zia failed to appear before the court on January 31 despite NAB’s directives.

“Therefore, he said, it is in the interest of justice that the original JIT report may please be requisitioned from the Registrar Office” of the Supreme Court.