ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has yet to complete the investigation initiated against deposed prime minister, his sons, daughter and son in-law even after a passage of over four months into the Sharif family’s trial before an accountability court in connection with three interim references against them.
On Tuesday, the NAB prosecution team filed a supplementary reference against the Sharif family in the Avenfield Apartments case in the court stating that the criminal role of some key accused in the case still under progress and the bureau would file a second supplementary reference as and when required.
The supplementary reference is against the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, sons Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz son-in-law Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar.
In the reference, NAB chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal stated that “investigation to the extent of the criminal roles of Musa Ghani, Saeed Ahmed, Javaid Kayani and Tariq Shafi” in aiding and abetting the accused is under progress as for Mutual Legal Assistance to foreign countries is still awaited.
Saeed Ahmed is the president and CEO of the National Bank of Pakistan and Shafi is a cousin of Nawaz Sharif. The reference read that the bureau would file a second supplementary reference as and when required by making MLA a part of that reference.
When the supplementary reference was filed, the NAB prosecution team requested the court to summons new witnesses on the next hearing. The defence counsel, however, raised the objection, saying the court can’t summon without examining if the supplementary reference is sustainable or not.
The defence counsel, Khawaja Haris and Amjad Pervaiz, would present arguments on the next date of hearing – Jan 30.
Since September 2017, the Sharif family is standing trial on the basis of interim references and recently, it emerged during a hearing that NAB has yet to submit original or certified copies of the Joint Investigation Team’s report and the trial is being conducted on the basis of unattested photocopies of JIT report.
In the foregoing facts and evidence collected so far, it is established that the accused Nawaz Sharif being a public office-holder owned Avenfield properties in the name of his dependents/benamidars which are disproportionate and beyond his known sources of income.
It added that Sharif could not reasonably account for and does not commensurate with his sources of income and shown to be acquired the same in the name of Hussain Nawaz of which Maryam Nawaz was made as the trustee, which has been proved to be fake and fabricated from record and forensic report.
