Toshakhana case: Accountability court starts recording testimonies

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court Thursday started recording statements of witnesses in Toshakhana case filed against former president Asif Ali Zardari, former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and others.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed references against Zardari and former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Yousaf Raza Gilani for illegally getting vehicles from the Toshakhana.

Judge Syed Asghar Ali conducted the hearing.

Zardari moved an application to the court, through his lawyer Farooq H Naek, seeking exemption from personal appearance for one day. Gilani appeared in the court.

Naek said the NAB had presented a witness without notifying the defence side and requested the court to record the deposition but allow him to cross-examine the witness at the next hearing.

The NAB prosecutor, however, objected to Naek’s plea insisting that the witness be cross-examined on the same date and requested the court to hear the case on a daily basis.

Witness Imran Zafar, a former deputy director of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), recorded his statement with the court saying that he had received a letter from the NAB on February 7, 2019, seeking details about the assets of Zardari and the nomination paper he had filed in 2008. The court adjourned the proceedings till October 1.