ISLAMABAD: Accountability Court on Tuesday resumed recording former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s statement in Avenfield reference case.
During the statement recording Sharif refuted any claims of his association or involvement in any business dealings with the Qatari family.
Sharif along with daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar appeared before the court.
During the case proceedings, Sharif claimed
that on January 5, 2017 Jerry Freeman had verified the trust deeds of Comber group, Nielson and Nescoll as he had a copy of the trust deeds at his office.
Sharif also added
that Qatari Prince’s letters were verified by Prince Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor al Thani himself by writing to the Supreme Court (SC).
Former PM remarked
that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had not even recorded Qatari Prince’s statement.
Sharif again raised objections on the Panama Papers JIT head Wajid Zia for employing services of his counsin Akhtar Raja’s company during the investigation. He said
that Raja along with three-member NAB team had met Robert Radley, however, his report has no value as NAB team did not have the original documents.
Nawaz added
that Raja’s statement in court was biased. Sharif informed the court, claiming
that Akhtar or the investigating officer had made no efforts to obtain the copies of the trust deeds from Freeman.
Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid claimed
that Raja had sent the phot
ocopies for forensics in haste, adding
that Akhtar should’ve known
that there is no forensic review of phot
ocopies. Sharif asserted
that the forensic expert was hesitant to conduct examination of the documents.
During the court proceedings, Nawaz informed the court
that he had no involvement in Dubai Steel Mills, since he had only attended the inauguration ceremony.
Furthermore, former PM claimed
that he never owned, directed or was a shareholder of Capital FZE as he was never a party of the company’s business dealings.
While referring to UAE’s Justice Ministry’s letter, Sharif remarked
that he wasn’t aware if t
he letter came in response to any mutual legal assistance. He added
that since t
he letter was never presented in the court thus it cannot be used as evidence against him.
Sharif also claimed
that the Mosaic Fonseca presented by Zia could not be used as a primary document as t
he letter could not be certified as per customary laws.
During the proceedings National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) pro
secutor objected over the way Nawaz was recording his statement.
NAB pro
secutor maintained the view
that the accused should record his statement with help from his defense but should not be read out by the defense himself.
In response to the pro
secutor, Judge Mohammad Bashir questioned NAB pro
secutor what he was trying to say to which he said
that his objections should be made part of the courts record.
Following the pro
secutors objection, Nawaz said
that he owned his statements, which were prepared with the help his legal counsel Khawaja Haris. Adding
that his counsel was reading out the statement because he had a throat problem due to which reading out for too long hurt his throat.
Sharid said
that if the court had any objections, it should have raised them during Monday’s hearing.
However, Nawaz started reading the statement himself following NAB pro
secutor’s objections.
During the hearing, the court confiscated PML-N’s member of provincial Assembl
y Maiza Hameed’s cell phone for using it in the courtroom. The irked judge said
that using mobile phones in the court are against its decorum.
Sharif and family are recording their statements in Avenfield reference case filed by NAB.