NAB relies on JIT’s findings

ISLAMABAD: The top corruption watchdog body has completely relied on findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) while preparing references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his three children and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Two senior investigators engaged in preparing four references against Nawaz Sharif, Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz, Maryam Nawaz, MNA Muhammad Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar confided to this correspondent that the JIT was unable to collect new ‘actionable evidence’ against the accused in the Panama case.

“We rely on JIT’s findings — time was too short to collect new actionable evidence from abroad, under legal mutual assistance laws of the National Accountability Bureau in particular,” one of investigation officers (IOs) revealed on Thursday. “Two IOs also suggested buying more time from the apex court in an effort to prepare a perfect case against the Sharifs with solid documentary evidence but no one listens to us,” an investigator revealed. Some senior officers were of the view that IOs should have done more work on these references, he added.

Even, a senior director general, during Thursday’s meeting, expressed his fear that references being made against the Sharifs, due to hast, might face ‘technical knockout in accountability courts, the official disclosed seeking anonymity.

But a senior official who works in prosecution wing of the body said, “We are going to file four references with some additional solid evidence today (Friday). These (interim) references would be filed with administrative judge of Rawalpindi Accountability Court, he said.

We are relying on section 14C of NAB Ordinance 1999 which stated when an accused person admitted to owning property, burden of proof shifted on him. The NAB Ordinance 1999 also empowered us to collect evidence about Sharifs’ properties abroad.”

Brigadier (R) Musaddiq Abbasi, who once served as NAB DG, found many technical flaws in these references being filed against the Sharifs today. “All the accused must be investigated, questioned by the IOs. All actionable evidence must be collected by the IOs before filing references as it is binding upon NAB administration,” he observed. “Why did NAB not show draft of references to the monitoring judge of the apex court?” he question. He, however, was of the view that it would be a test case for the Sharifs if they did not appear before the courts.

About the discussion seeking more time from the apex court for collecting more actionable evidence and technical knockout fear a spokesman for the NAB denied the information as saying “no such conversation took place during the meeting. These are just mere allegations to tarnish the transparent image of the NAB. The officers and officials of NAB are educated, professionally very sound and they believe in decency,” added Nawazish Ali, Spokesperson for the NAB.