Khawaja Haris continues Wajid Zia’s cross-examination in Avenfield case

–JIT did not bother to verify the documents submitted by the Sharif family, says Marriyum

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court in Islamabad conducting corruption proceedings against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family resumed hearing the Avenfield properties case on Friday.

The case, based on a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28’s verdict in Panama Papers case, pertains to the Sharif family’s London apartments.

Head of the Panama case joint investigation team (JIT) – formed to probe the Sharif family’s assets during the Panama Papers case in the Supreme Court (SC) – and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Additional Director Wajid Zia was cross-examined by Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Haris on Thursday after he completed recording his statement over several weeks.

With the cross-examination continuing today, in response to Haris’ query, Zia said the JIT had unanimously decided to contact the Jeremy Freeman’s UK-based law firm through Quist Solicitors and verify the Nielsen and Nescoll companies’ trust deed.

Zia said that Freeman testified the signatures on the trust deed were of Hussain Nawaz. The former was also questioned over the JIT’s investigation of the sale of Sharif family-owned Gulf Steel Mills.

Later, the case was adjourned until Monday (April 2).

Nawaz, daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar, indicted in the Avenfield reference, were present throughout the hearing.

During the last proceedings on Thursday, Wajid Zia said that the JIT could not collectively agree on whether to send a questionnaire to Qatari Royal Prince Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, adding that the probe team decided on its own regarding the Qatari letters.

‘JIT DID NOT BOTHER TO VERIFY DOCUMENTS PRESENTED BY SHARIF FAMILY’:

Later in the day, Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb while talking to the media outside the accountability court said the JIT headed by Wajid Zia did not bother to verify the documents presented by the Sharif family including the letter by the Qatari Prince, the trust deed and the papers regarding shipment of the machinery of Gulf Steel Mills.

The minister said that during the cross-examination of the statements made by Wajid Zia, it had transpired that the JIT had not even requested for MLA regarding the Qatari letter, the trust deed and the documents regarding the shipment of the Gulf Steel Mill machinery which were submitted by the Sharifs along with the money trail in their defence. She also said that the documents were the pivotal evidence in the case but the JIT on its own assumed them to be “fake”.

Marriyum said that the entire nation knew that the case against Nawaz was “not of corruption but a case of political victimisation”. “The reason why this case was instituted is now evident to everyone,” she added.

She said that those who submitted “fake evidence” probably thought that whatever they would collect would be accepted in totality by the court, but it did not work that way and now they feared the consequences.

“Wajid Zia’s statements in the court have further strengthened Nawaz Sharif’s narrative,” said the minister and added that in a “propaganda” against the former premier and his family, the documents submitted by the Sharif family were being used as evidence against them.