Jail being readied for me, says Sharif

islamabad — The three members of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed to probe my family’s business dealings abroad “are our worst political opponents”, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday. Sharif expressed fears that Adiala jail was already being prepared for him, according to media reports.

Sharif, along with his daughter Maryam, made the remarks after appearing before an accountability court in Islamabad in a reference concerning his family’s Avenfield properties. “Bit by bit, the reality of the JIT’s investigative report is being revealed,” he said addressing the media after court’s proceedings, Dawn online reports.

“You know that the facts that went in our favour were (deliberately) hidden by the JIT,” he al- leged. “You already know what has come out of Wajid Zia’s mouth and, in a way, he has given us a certificate (of innocence),” he claimed.

Though the Sharif family has kept up a narrative that Zia, the prosecution’s star witness and head of the JIT, has considerably weakened the case by failing to hold up to cross questioning, the PML-N’s political opponents say the court’s proceedings have been misconstrued by the PML-N to present a distorted picture to give Sharif’s supporters false hopes. “A new truth has come to light today,” Sharif said before alleging that of the six members of the JIT, “three are our worse political opponents. They, or their wives or (other) family members are active members of the PTI,” he claimed.

He chose to exclude the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) representative, Irfan Naeem Mangi, from his list, choosing to stick to criticism of the intelligence agencies’ representatives on the team.

“My case was not a terrorism case. I was doing nothing against the interests of Pakistan. What was the need to include the ISI and MI in the JIT?” he asked.

Earlier, Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Haris completed his cross-examination of Zia in the Avenfield refence, ten days after he began examining the witness.

Maryam’s counsel, Amjad Parvez, has now taken over from him.

During the examination, Zia had said that the team did not maintain a daily diary of its proceedings as it had been ordered by the Supreme Court to submit a report every 15 days.

He said that the Joint Investigation Team had not been conducting a criminal investigation but had the powers to conduct an investigation. —

Bit by bit, the reality of the JIT’s investigative report is being revealed. You know that the facts that went in our favour were (deliberately) hidden by the JIT Nawaz Sahirf, former prime minister