Sharif gets last chance for defence in Avenfield case
ISLAMABAD — The accountability court has given a last chance to former premier Nawaz Sharif and his relatives to record their statement on Monday after their lead counsel requested the court to defer the matter regarding the Avenfield properties reference.
The ousted prime minister, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and sonin-law captain (Retd) Mohammad Safdar have been asked to record the final statement in their defence and produce anything on record to contradict the statements of 19 prosecution witnesses.
Judge Mohammad Bashir of the accountability court had also handed over a questionnaire comprising 128 questions to the counsel for the Sharif family on May 16.
When the matter came up for hearing, advocate Khawaja Mohammad Haris requested the court to conclude cross-examination of prosecution witness Wajid Zia in the Al Azizia reference first. He argued that some questions were related to the crucial facts which were similar in all the three references.
While deciding the petition of Imran Khan and others on July 28, 2017 the Supreme Court had ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to prepare three references — Avenfield properties, Al Azizia and Flagship Investment Co — for trial of Sharif and his relatives in an accountability court.
The defence counsel argued that some of the facts related to Gulf and London properties and Qatari investment were overlapping and it would be prejudice to the defence case if their statement was recorded before the testimony of all prosecution witnesses in all the NAB references. Haris said the Supreme Court’s registrar office had been requested for the provision of some documents which he said were required to be attached with the reply. For this reason, he said the matter be adjourned till Monday.
Judge Bashir adjourned the proceedings till May 21 with the observation that it was the last chance for the accused persons to record their statement and to present their version before the court in the Avenfield case.
Haris also claimed that they had not prepared answers to the questions so far. He alleged that there were mistakes in some questions while a few other questions could not be comprehended.
However, special prosecutor Afazl Qureshi reminded the court that it was working under the deadline set by the apex court and any change in the scheduled proceedings would cause delay.
He asked to the court that Sharif and his relatives be asked to submit their statement as per the court directive while only those questions which they considered identical or overlapping in the three references could be answered at a later stage. —