The corruption references were filed against members of the Sharif family by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in compliance with the Supreme Court's July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.
While hearing the case, Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir indicted Nawaz Sharif in references relating to Avenfield Properties and establishment of Azizia Steel Company and Hill Metal Company, while Maryam and Safdar were indicted only in one reference relating to the Avenfield Properties. The court also dismissed three separate pleas filed by the accused and adjourned the hearing till October 26.
The court will indict Nawaz Sharif today (Friday) in another reference related to establishment of companies, including Flagship Investment Ltd, Hartstone Properties Ltd, Que Holdings Ltd, Quint Eaton Place 2 Ltd, Quint Saloane Ltd, Quaint Ltd, Flagship Securities Ltd, Quint Gloucestor Place Ltd, Quint Paddington Ltd, Flagship Developments Ltd, Alanna Services Ltd, Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron Inc, Ansbacher Inc, Coomber Inc and Capital FZE (Dubai).
The judge read out the charge-sheet against three accused. However, the accused rejected the charges by pleading not guilty and vowed to prove their innocence. During the hearing, Maryam and Safdar were present in the court, while Nawaz Sharif was represented by pleader Advocate Zaffir Khan.
According to the charge-sheet, the 2006 trust deed of the London properties is fake, as it is written in a Calibri font which was not publicly available at that time, while the accused also submitted bogus documents in the Supreme Court.
Following the indictment, Maryam, Safdar and pleader of Nawaz Sharif read out the statement: "I do not only pleading not guilty but refuse to accept charges. Charges are not only groundless, baseless and unfounded but also frivolous, and on top of that we are being denied our right to fair trial. The charges are being framed on a report that is incomplete and controversial. It will go down in history as a mockery of justice and travesty of justice. Moreover, the charges are being framed without awaiting the detailed order of the Supreme Court in the review petitions."
The court adjourned hearing till October 26 and summoned Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan's (SECP) joint registrar Sidra Mansoor to record her statement as the first witness in the case.
According to the charge-sheet, in a reference to establishment of Azizia Steel Company and Hill Metal Company, Nawaz Sharif failed to justify sources of his assets. Nawaz Sharif was running his business, besides holding public office. It further said that Nawaz Sharif continued running his business despite holding the offices of prime minister and chief minister. In 1991, Nawaz Sharif transferred his business on the name of his children and billions of rupees were transferred to Nawaz Sharif in the form of gifts by his children.
The court also adjourned the hearing of Azizia Steel Company reference case till October 26 and summoned a prosecution witness, Jahangir Ahmad.
Earlier, Maryam Nawaz arrived at the court amid tight security. She was accompanied by ministers including Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Maryam Aurangzeb and Abid Sher Ali, and other senior PML-N leaders. After some time Maryam's spouse Captain Safdar (retd) reached the court premises.
At the outset of the hearing, Amjad Pervaiz, the counsel for the Sharif family, submitted a plea before the court that his clients could not be indicted in references as they are not provided complete documents of the case, specifically the 'Volume X' of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report, as well as NAB has filed a supplementary reference against them.
He further told the court that the investigators have recorded statements of three people but their names are not included in the list of prosecution witnesses. The court should not indict his clients until they are not furnished with complete documents and copies of statements of three people recorded by NAB, he said.
Deputy Prosecutor NAB Muzaffar Abbas while objecting to the plea said, "We have yet to decide whether the three persons whose statements are recorded by NAB would be made accused or witnesses."
After the submission of the plea, Judge Muhammad Bashir stopped the proceedings for 15 minutes. When the hearing resumed, Ayesha Hamid, junior member of Nawaz Sharif's legal team, filed another plea with a request that the court should halt proceedings until the Supreme Court decides on Nawaz's plea for NAB to consolidate all references.
The deputy prosecutor NAB also opposed the second application filed by the Sharif's counsel. After defence counsel and NAB prosecutor concluded their arguments, the court reserved a verdict on pleas that were filed through the Sharif family's legal team. The court dismissed two pleas filed by the Sharif family demanding deferment of indictment and halting the proceedings of corruption references.
Later, Advocate Ayesah Hamid filed another application pleading consolidation of three references.
After filing of the third application, the NAB legal team requested the court for a short break. The court granted the request. After the break, court resumed hearing again.
The judge asked Sharif's counsel: What is the harm in separate trial of references?
Ayesha argued before the court that holding several trials on a single allegation is violation of a defendant's fundamental rights. She further said that a single reference can be filed for same allegation and after filing of three different references, Wajid Zia, head of Joint Investigation Team, would present an identical summary of a single report again and again.
She further argued that all references are similar, witnesses of all references are also common and all the three references depend upon a single JIT report.
The NAB prosecutor while opposing the third plea said that three different references have been filed as not only the mode of the cases is different but the role of accused is also different. "If the plea to consolidate the three references is accepted, it would become a voluminous case," he further said.
The court after hearing the arguments of NAB prosecutor and defence lawyer also rejected the third plea, seeking consolidation of the three references.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017