ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is now in a position to file references against the Sharif family after the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s monitoring judge granted permission to the bureau to record statements of the Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
For NAB, the key legal hurdle so far has been the recording of statements of JIT members as well as other witnesses under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Justice Ijazul Ahsan, the SC monitoring judge, authorised NAB on Saturday to record statements of the six-member JIT. The field is now clear for the bureau to finalise and file references against Sharif family even if they do not appear before it in response to the summons issued to them.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan had been appointed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar to supervise implementation of the apex court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.
According to a senior official of NAB, almost all legal, codal and procedural formalities have either been completed or are near completion that are mandatory for filing references with the accountability court against the Sharif family.
To avert any lacuna, he said, NAB might issue another call-up notice to the accused, adding that these notices would also be issued to the JIT members as well as other witnesses. He said that the documents collected by the JIT for filing references would also be exhibited.
He said that recording the statements of all witnesses was not essential. “However, the JIT head’s statement is required. JIT members will record their statements as prosecution witnesses. The prosecution witnesses will be subjected to cross-examination after the trial starts in the accountability court,” he said. To a question, he said, NAB would not wait for the decision of the review petitions filed by the Sharif family in the SC and carry on its job unless the apex court gave it any further directions in this regard.
NAB’s executive board is scheduled to meet here today (Monday) to give a final nod to the matter of filing references against the Sharif family.
NAB is set to file four references against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his children Hassan, Hussain and Maryam, son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar, as well as Ishaq Dar.
The references will be related to the Sharif family’s flats in London and their two steel mills in Saudi Arabia. The former finance minister, meanwhile, will face an inquiry into his assets beyond known source of income. Three references each against Nawaz, Hussain, Hassan; two against Maryam; one each against Capt (r) Safdar and Ishaq Dar, will be filed.
According to NAB, a reference related to the Avenfield House properties (flats 16, 16-A, 17 and 17-A Avenfield House, Park Lane, London) will be filed against Nawaz Sharif, Maryam, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, as well as Captain (r) Safdar.
A second reference, related to the establishment of Azizia Steel Company and Hill Metal Establishment, will be filed against Nawaz Sharif, Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz.
The third reference will be filed against Hussain, Hassan and Maryam Nawaz Sharif. Another reference will be filed relating to the companies mentioned in paragraph 9 of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Panama Papers case.
These include Flagship Investments Limited, Hartstone Properties Limited, Que Holdings Limited, Quint Eaton Place 2 Limited, Quint Saloane Limited (formerly Quint Eaton Place Limited), Quaint Limited, Flagship Securities Limited, Quint Gloucester Place Limited, Quint Paddington Limited (formerly Rivates Estates Limited), Flagship Developments Limited, Alanna Services Limited (BVI), Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron Inc, Ansbacher Inc, Coomber Inc; and Capital FZE (Dubai).
The fourth reference will be filed against Ishaq Dar for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. NAB will not initiate fresh investigations in all four references and will rely on the JIT’s report and the reports of other investigations already conducted by it or the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The references will be prepared on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the JIT in its report and some other material that may be available with FIA and NAB having nexus with the assets, which might subsequently become available including material that may become available in pursuant to the mutual legal assistance requests sent by JIT to different countries. According to the JIT report, NAB is presently investigating 28 different cases against the Sharif family.
On July 28, 2017, the SC had disqualified Nawaz Sharif and ordered NAB to file corruption references against him, his children, son-in-law and Ishaq Dar in accountability courts.
The court gave NAB six weeks to file the references and the accountability court six months to wrap up proceedings in the high-profile case. Nawaz Sharif, his children, son-in-law and Ishaq Dar have filed review petitions against the apex court verdict in Panama Papers case.
Published in Daily Times, August 28th 2017.
