ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Prosecutor Wasiq Malik on Monday claimed that there were contradictions in the two letters sent by the Qatari prince as investigations have revealed that two million dirhams were never sent to Qatar for buying the Avenfield flats.
The NAB prosecutor said this while continuing his concluding remarks in the Al-Azizia reference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Accountability Judge Arshad Malik was hearing the case.
The NAB prosecutor told the court that there were contradictions in the two letters sent by the Qatari prince during the hearing and investigation of this case. “The inspection of those letters revealed that two million dirhams were never sent to Qatar for Avenfield properties,” he claimed.
Upon this, Judge Malik said that Khawaja Haris, legal counsel of Nawaz, will give the answer to this statement. “Do letters from Qatar hold any significance if the witness did not come to Pakistan,” the judge asked.
The NAB prosecutor further said that the name of Hussain Nawaz was mentioned in the sale documents of Al-Azizia Steel Mills. “No details of the establishment of Al-Azizia Mills were provided by Sharifs and were deliberately kept under wraps,” the prosecutor claimed.
Meanwhile, Judge Malik asked whether the former prime minister changed his lawyer during the proceedings of these references. “It happened earlier at times that change in lawyer resulted in a change of statements,” he said, adding that it has become a norm to lie before the courts.
Further, the former premier did not appear before the court citing medical issues with his knee.
On November 29, during the hearing of Al-Azizia reference, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) claimed that Nawaz had failed to satisfy investigators regarding his sources of income with which he had acquired assets worth billions of rupees. The accountability watchdog told the court that has evidence of the former premier earning profit worth over Rs1 billion via his children’s assets. Previously, on November 28, the accountability court handed over a questionnaire to the former prime minister for recording his statement under Section 342 in the Flagship Investment reference.
NAB had filed three references against members of the Sharif family in line with the Supreme Court’s (SC) order of July 28 last year.
In September 2017, the trial against the Sharif family commenced. On July 6, after four extensions in the original six-month deadline to conclude all three cases, the court announced its verdict in the Avenfield reference.
An accountability court had sentenced Nawaz to a total of 11 years in prison and slapped a £8 million fine (Rs1.3 billion) in the corruption reference while his daughter Maryam was sentenced to eight years with a £2 million fine (Rs335 million). Additionally, Nawaz’s son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar was given a one-year sentence without any fine.
However, the jail sentences were later suspended by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
