Court testifies four prosecution witnesses against Sharif family in NAB references

ISLAMABAD: An Accountability Court (AC) of Islamabad Wednesday testify four prosecution witnesses in three references against Sharif family members and also sought reply from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Nawaz Sharif’s plea seeking changing in his exemption from appearance period to inquire after the health of Kulsoom Nawaz in London.

The court also summoned two more NAB witnesses to testify in Flagship Investment and Avenfield London flats references on November 28.

The AC Judge Muhammad Bashir took up three references against Sharif family members for hearing filed by NAB in compliance of Supreme Court orders in Panama papers case.

The former Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, appeared before the court along with their legal teams despite of having exemption from appearance, amid foolproof security arrangements in place.

The NAB prosecution team and its four witnesses were also in attendance in the court to record their statements.

During hearing, Maryam Nawaz submitted an application to the court to alter her exemption period. She requested the court to allow her one month exemption from court appearance now from December 5, 2017 to January 5, 2018.

Similarly, the former prime minister also submitted the request with the court to sought one week exemption from appearance from December 5, to 12 instead of November 22 to 28th of this month.

The court sought reply from NAB on former prime minister and his daughter’s plea seeking alter in their exemption from appearance period.

Meanwhile, the four witnesses including Mazhar Raza Bangash, Abdul Rasheed,--who belong to a British law firm--and Chief Finance Officer of Chaudhry Sugar Mills Shehbaz Haider recorded their statements before accountability court judge and were cross-examined by the defense counsel.

Nawaz Sharif’s counsel, Khwaja Harris, completed the cross-examination with NAB's witness, Mohammad Rasheed. NAB's witness, Mazhar Raza Bangash, who recorded his statement in the Avenfield reference, was cross-examined by Harris and Amjad Pervez, the counsel of Maryam and Safdar.

In his statement, Abdul Rasheed said he received NAB letter NAB Lahore on September 5 and appeared before the bureau and handed over the required documents to the investigating officer.

NAB prosecutor Afzal Qureshi exchanged hot words with the counsel as the former accused the latter of trying to confuse the witness.

The witness stated that he had no personal connection with the documents he had submitted.

The second witness Mazhar Bangash said that he appeared before NAB Lahore on August 30 and submitted the requisite documents to the investigating officer. The documents submitted to NAB had been provided by his company but he could not comment or give his opinion on the document, he said.

Tayyab, an employee of a private bank, said the documents pertaining to Nawaz Sharif's five bank accounts were prepared by him and carried his signatures. The three of those accounts were in foreign currencies.

Khwaja Harris objected that the documents presented by Tayyab had not been provided to him prior to the witness' statement, at which the court ordered to provide him the copies of documents.

The court also summoned again the fourth prosecution witness Malik Tayyab to complete cross-examination in Azizia Steel Mills reference on November 27.

The court also summoned two more NAB witnesses including Umer Daraz and Mukhtar in Flagship Investment and Avenfield property references to testify on November 28.

It may be mentioned here that Nawaz Sharif and his family are facing three references filed by the (NAB) in light of the Supreme Court's July 28 judgment in the Panama Papers case.

Nawaz and his two sons, Hussain and Hasan, are nominated in all three references whereas Maryam and her husband MNA Capt (retd) Safdar are only accused in one related to Avenfield property.