ISLAMABAD: Prosecution witness Wajid Zia on Friday admitted before the accountability court that the JIT with a unanimous decision had forwarded a questionnaire to Jeremy Freeman through Quist solicitors, seeking his opinion about the veracity of the two trust deeds related to offshore companies Coomber and Nelson and Nescol.
Interestingly, Wajid during cross-examination on Thursday had said that the JIT unanimously declined the request of Prince Hamad bin Jassim who through a letter had stated that if JIT wanted to investigate him regarding the Sharif family investment with the Qatari royal family, they could come to Doha but a questionnaire should be sent in advance.
He had also told the court that in his entire 29-year police service, he had never sent an advance questionnaire to either any accused or a prosecution witness. Contrary to this, Wajid on Friday admitted before the court that Jeremy Freeman of aUK-based law firm Freeman Box, who had certified the Coomber, Nelson and Nescol trust deeds in 2006, was sent a questionnaire in advance to know about the veracity of the trust deeds. Freeman on February 4, 2006 had signed the two documents as witness.
Earlier, Khawaja Haris, the counsel for Nawaz Sharif, asked Wajid whether the JIT had directly contacted Freeman, to which he replied that the Quist solicitors on behalf of the JIT contacted him for verification.
Then Haris posed another question, “Did the JIT write a letter asking Freeman to come to Pakistan with relevant record and record his statement as witness?” To which Wajid’s reply was in negative. “We never tried to record Freeman’s statement and whatever he submitted through an email we did not give any opinion either in favour or against, but we draw a conclusion that is mentioned in the JIT report. After his email, we never contacted him for asking him to provide more material,” the prosecution witness said.
Another question asked by Haris was, “Do you think that the Gulf Steel Mills (GSM) was ever set up? In his reply, Wajid said the papers that were submitted showed it was established.
Regarding the shares sale agreement of GSM between Nawaz Sharif’s cousin Tariq Shafi and Muhammad Abdullah Kayed Ahli in 1978, he said the JIT did not verify the authenticity of the document and “we assumed the contents were correct”. The JIT never contacted Ahli to record his statement, Wajid replied to another question.
Haris posed another question, “Tariq Shafi had told the JIT that Ahli paid cash amount against 25 per cent shares of GSM. Did the JIT ever tried to contact Ahli to know about his version.” To which, Wajid replied in negative.
“Another shares sale agreement on April 14, 1980 between the two said persons was also signed and witnessed by Muhammad Abdul Wahab Guladari. The JIT, however, did not contact the witness to record his statement. Another person Muhammad Akram had signed the 1980 agreement as a witness and the JIT tried to locate him but could not found,” the prosecution witness said.
The 1980 agreement was attested by a Pakistani Consular Munawar Hussain and also by the UAE foreign office; however, the JIT neither contacted Munawar nor the UAE foreign office for verification, he added.
Haris asked him about another affidavit of Abdur Rehman, the son of Ahli, according to which a total of 33 million dirhams were paid against the sale of GSM. But Wajid’s response was that there were contradictions between the two sale agreements and the JIT never asked Abdur Rehman to record his statement to verify the contents of his affidavit.
Haris then confronted Wajid on the issue of transportation of the steel mills machinery, as Hussain Nawaz had said that in 2000-01, the machinery of the Ahli Steel Mills was transported to Jeddah where Al-Azizia Steel Mills was established.
Haris asked Wajid that the JIT had written a mutual legal assistance (MLA) application to the UAE ministry of justice, with a request to provide the record of transportation of scrap machinery from Dubai to Jeddah, but the UAE authorities had said they did have any record.
The defence counsel said, “Did the JIT before writing this MLA see the copy of the letter of credit through which this machinery was transported? To which Wajid replied in affirmative. Haris then pointed out that the machinery had been transported from Sharjah, not Dubai, and it was second-hand rolling mill equipment in dismantled form as per letter of credit, not scrap machinery.
Wajid said the JIT had not sent any MLA to the UAE authorities for verification of the letter of credit.
Haris posed a question. “Tariq Shafi had told the JIT that he had received 12 million Dirham in cash from the sale of 25 per cent shares of GSM. In this situation, the amount may not be having any traces from the banking record? To this, Wajid replied that it was not possible because the GSM had certain bank guarantees involved.
Haris then asked whether any member of the JIT had travelled to the UAE for verification of the two sale agreements of GSM. The witness replied in negative and said the JIT had concluded that the 1980 sale agreement was forged.
“And our conclusion was based on a letter from the UAE ministry of justice dated June 28, 2017 which said that they did not find any record of the agreement in the Dubai court system.”
At this, Haris questioned did any witness deposed before the JIT that the sale agreement was registered in Dubai court system. Wajid’s reply was it was written in the 1978 share sale agreement of GSM that it had been registered with the Dubai court system and municipality. The UAE ministry of justice had searched in their system and found out that there was no transaction of 12 million dirhams in the name of Tariq Shafi.
However, Haris asked him whether any witness had deposed before the JIT that the 12 million Dirhams were paid through Dubai court system, to which Zia replied in negative. Later, the accountability adjourned further hearing till Monday (April 2).