Al-Azizia reference: Nawaz granted time to record statement

Ag agencies

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, during hearing of the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case on Tuesday, requested more time from the accountability court to provide answers of four remaining questions into the graft reference, a private TV channel reported.

Lawyer of the former PM, Khawaja Haris, pleaded the court to provide his client a little more time so he could complete study of the background of remaining queries before submitting their answers. “We need to sit and analyse questions before furnishing the response,’ Haris requested the Judge Arshad Malik, who was chairing the proceedings.

The lawyer assured the court that Sharif would also appear before the court on Thursday (November 22).

The judge responded that the case needed to be winded up in three weeks as ordered by the Supreme Court. He added that the court would try limiting questions from 70 to 75 in the Flagship Investment reference.

The judge, while accepting Khawaja Haris request, allowed to record statement of Nawaz Sharif on Thursday. Nawaz Sharif has submitted his answers to 144 questions in the Al-Azizia case, while four are left due to complication in nature of questions as stated by Khawaja Haris. Later, Muhammad Kamran, National Accountability Bureau''s (NAB) Investigation Officer in the Flagship Investment reference, told the court that he had an in-depth analysis of all the record before initiating investigation against the former prime minister.

During the cross-examination by the defence counsel, Kamran said he had collected the report of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and other documents for probing the matter.

He said he had written letters on same day to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) seeking tax record of the accused and to the Chaudhry Sugar Mills to find its record. He said he did not know the source of the tax record of Nawaz Sharif from 1985 to 1999 and 2009 to 2016, which was part of the JIT report. No JIT member was investigated for the purpose, he added.

Kamran said he came to know during the investigation that the JIT had not received the record related to the Capital FZE Company in response of its mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests, which were written to the United Arab Emirates authorities by Shehab Sultan. The case was adjourned till Thursday.

On November 19, the Supreme Court gave three weeks to the accountability court to wrap up graft references against Nawaz Sharif.