ISLAMABAD: Accountability Court judge Muhammad Bashir, who is trying ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his children in three references, is unlikely to conclude them in the remaining six days of the extended deadline of two months given by the Supreme Court.
He will most likely seek the second extension from the apex court in black and white any time as he had done earlier when the original six-month time limit, fixed in the July 28, 2017 judgment for deciding the references, had expired.
The top court had granted two months more for wrapping up of the three references while it had extended the deadline for conclusion of a reference against former finance minister Ishaq Dar by three months.
The watchers of the back-to-back accountability court hearings say the judicial forum will need considerably more time to wind up the cases as the essentially-mandated processes are yet to be completed.
The prosecution – the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) – is still to close the testimonies of its witnesses. When it finishes this job, the defence – the Sharif family – will present its own witnesses to rebut the prosecution story. It is not exactly known how many witnesses the defence will produce, but according to one informed source, it will present over a dozen deponents.
However, after recording of verbal evidence is over, the Sharif family’s lawyers, including Khawaja Haris and Amjad Pervez, and the NAB prosecutor will advance their arguments in support of their respective cases. This will mark the end of the case, ripening it for verdict by the judge.
It is also unclear whether the judge will simultaneously pronounce verdicts in all the three references or hand down his decisions at different points of time. The accused persons have repeatedly stressed that the judgments in all the three cases should be delivered at the same time. They had pleaded before superior courts more than once that the references should be clubbed together, but their plea was not accepted.
All the four references were filed by the NAB on the directions contained in the Supreme Court judgment. The anti-corruption watchdog had summoned the deposed prime minister and his children for investigation into these cases, but they had preferred not to become part of the probe. As a result, NAB had submitted the cases to the accountability court on the basis of the report of the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT). Its total reliance is on the JIT findings and it has failed to present any additional evidence despite frequent visits by its officials. Nothing has so far come out of the mutual legal assistance requests sent by the JIT to almost half a dozen countries.
Whatever the decisions to be taken by the judge, either side – the Sharif family or the NAB – will appeal against them in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). If the former prime minister and others are convicted, they will dispute the verdict, and if the NAB’s claims are rejected, they will knock at the doors of the high court.
While the judge has not hinted at the timing of the rulings and he can’t unless all the essential judicial prerequisites are completed as per the law, Nawaz Sharif stated three days ago that he, apprehending adverse judgment, did not know what would happen to him in the next 10/20 days and where he would be after that.
It was generally thought after the July 28 judgment was released by the Supreme Court that the references would be decided within the six months’ time given by it. However, it did not happen. Before the initial deadline exhausted, the judge requested the court to give an extension that was granted.
In the meantime, Muhammad Bashir’s own tenure as judge, which had earlier been repeatedly extended, was also to expire on March 10. However, on the apex court’s order it was extended, and the government enhanced it by three years. Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam have so far appeared before the accountability for seventy-one times. They did not skip too many hearings.
The apex court bench that had granted the last extension had comprised Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who is also monitoring and supervising the proceedings at the accountability court and the NAB in relation to these four references. He was appointed as the monitoring judge in the July 28 verdict.
NAB’s additional prosecutor general Muhammad Akbar Tarar had informed the bench that there was no delay on the part of the prosecution or the defence, as evidence of most of the prosecution witnesses in all the references had been recorded. While acknowledging that substantial work had been done by the accountability court in the references, Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked NAB’s Tarar to give some estimate how much more time the accountability court needed to decide the references. Tarar had said two more months would be enough to complete the proceedings in the three references against the Sharif family while three months would be required in the reference against Dar as he was an absconder.