The Accountability Court hearing corruption cases against the Sharif family members on Friday accepted National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) plea to bring additional evidence obtained from foreign jurisdiction against the accused on court's record. The NAB during previous hearing filed an application before the court, requesting to submit fresh documents.
Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir had directed prosecution and defence teams to present their arguments on the application during yesterday's hearing.
At the outset of hearing, defense counsel Amjad Pervez filed a plea seeking exemption for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, from Friday's hearing which was accepted by the court, whereas Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd) appeared before the court.
During the course of hearing, Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi informed the Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir that the Bureau's International Cooperation Wing has obtained additional documents related to the Avenfield and Flagship Investment cases. The documents are related to registry record, utility bills and council tax of the London flats, he explained.
Abbasi said that fresh documents were received in response to the requests of mutual legal assistance (MLA) sent by the joint investigation team (JIT) that investigated Panama Papers case. The Bureau has also received a response from the United Kingdom Central Authority, he further said.
The prosecutor said the accused have attempted to conceal these documents which have now been produced by the NAB. He said the NAB has decided to present Director General Operations Zahir Shah as new witness to produce additional documents in the court.
The counsel for Maryam Nawaz and her husband Muhammad Safdar, Amjad Pervez argued before the court that the witnesses in the case have already been cross-examined with regard to registry record. "Earlier the NAB had filed a supplementary reference on the grounds that they have obtained fresh evidence and now they have filed an application for submission of fresh documents," he said, adding that documents related to land registry were already attached with the replies filed by the accused in the Supreme Court.
Pervez said that the Bureau filed an application after 30 days of receiving the documents. He further said the NAB has mentioned two types of MLA requests in its application. The Bureau also mentioned MLA dated May 27, 2017 in its application written by head of JIT Wajid Zia, who testified before the court for 20 days as a witness in the case.
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