"The former premier had filed no miscellaneous application in the apex court regarding purchase and possession of Avenfield properties," added Khawaja Haris while presenting his final arguments before the Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir in the Avenfield reference. However, Wajid Zia and the JIT report talked about Nawaz Sharif's miscellaneous application regarding the purchase and possession of London flats, he further said.
He said the statement of co-accused (Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz) could not be applied on Sharif. "How can the statement of an accused be applied on Sharif when he is not included in the trial?" he said, adding that the person who filed a miscellaneous application in the apex court could be associated in the investigation.
Haris further said that the documents obtained by the JIT from the apex court were not verified under the Qanoon-e-Shahdat. "I do not know whether the affidavit filed by Tariq Shafi, a close relative of Sharif, was true or false", he said, adding that Shafi is not a witness in this case therefore his affidavit could not be used against his client.
Challenging the report of Joint Investigation Team (JIT), Haris said that the whole JIT report is inadmissible and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) went totally wrong by making the JIT report a part of references. Referring to various judgments of the Supreme Court related to the Panama Papers case, he said that apex court directed the JIT to investigate the case and collect material. The Supreme Court has empowered the JIT to file a case under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Act 1973 and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) 1898, he said, adding that as per apex court's orders, the JIT was a complete investigation agency.
He said these laws have specified jurisdiction of investigation and the JIT was bound to work under its defined jurisdiction. "Investigation and court trial are two different things," he said, adding that following the investigation of case the court draws a conclusion.
However, he said if an investigation agency draws conclusion then what responsibility of prosecution will be. The Supreme Court had directed the NAB to file references on the basis of material collected by the JIT, he said.
Haris said that inferences, opinions and conclusions drawn by the JIT are not admissible. The JIT report is just an investigation report and JIT was only authorized to collect material and not to draw conclusion, he added.
On this, the judge asked Haris, "Instead of challenging some portion of the JIT report, you have challenged the whole report." Haris said he had already objected to the JIT report. The lead counsel for Sharif further said that the first part of JIT report consists of opinions, second part is made up of statements recorded under Section 161 and the third part comprises material.
He said the prosecution cannot use statements recorded under the Section 161 for its benefits but if the accused wants, he can use it for his case. "The audio or video recordings of a statement could not be used as evidence," he further said.
Haris said that witnesses mentioned by Wajid Zia, head of JIT, while recording his statement did not appear before this court. Under Qanoon-e-Shahadat these witnesses were required to appear before the court, he said.
He said that under the law, witnesses can only testify before the court what they have seen by themselves. The statements recorded by Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz before the JIT are not a confession and their statements could not be used against other accused, he said, adding that only confessional statements could be used against the accused.
He said that Hassan and Hussain said nothing about Sharif in their statements. Haris also gave reference of several judgments before the court.
Sharif's counsel while reading out the statement of Wajid Zia said that there is a contradiction in the statement of Zia. He said that Qatari Prince Hamad Bin Jassim had confirmed thrice what he told to the Supreme Court is correct. "The Qatari prince has no link with his client's case," he said.
The court adjourned hearing till today (Friday) and Haris will continue final arguments in the case.