Marriyum says JIT did not bother to verify Sharifs’ documents

• State minister suggests media should allow an opportunity to those who were afraid to explain as to why they were afraid?

ISLAMABAD: The Joint Investigation Team (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 the Gulf Steel Mills.

Talking to the journalists outside the accountability court here on Friday, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the JIT did not even contact the company concerned and these documents were not included in the case as a proof by the Sharif family in their defence.

During the cross-examination of the statements made by Wajid Zia by the lawyer of the Sharif family, she said that it had transpired the JIT had not requested for the verification regarding the Qatari letter, trust deed and the shipment documents which were submitted by the Sharif family along with the money trail.

She said that these documents were the pivotal evidence in the case but the JIT on its own assumed them as fake. The state minister said that the JIT had not been able to collect or present any evidence against the Sharif family in the court till today. She said that the entire nation knew that it was not a case of corruption against Nawaz Sharif but a case of political victimisation.

Why this case was instituted and for what purpose was now evident to everybody, she said and pointed out that Wajid Zia had come to the court among tight security and it seemed that he was going to give some big statement or make a big revelation today. She suggested that the media should also allow an opportunity to those who were afraid to explain as to why they were afraid?

Marriyum said that if they were afraid and could not defend their actions then they should not have done anything wrong or collected flawed evidence. She said that they probably thought that whatever they would collect would be accepted in totality by the court not realising that it did not work that way.

She said that the statements of Wajid Zia in the court were strengthening the narrative of Nawaz Sharif. She said that they had been propagating that the Sharif family had not presented any evidence in their defence whereas the reality was that the documents which were deposited by the Sharif family were being used as evidence against them.

She said that Malala Yousafzai was pride of Pakistan who bravely stood up against terrorism. She said that the steps taken in line with the vision of the former prime minister and the PML-N government had achieved great success against terrorism and peace had returned to the country. She said that the sacrifices rendered by the people, security forces and the law enforcing agencies had also immensely contributed to that effort.