Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif along with bis daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt retd Safdar reached the accountability court in Islamabad.
Judge Muhammad Bashir is heading the proceedings into the interim references filed by the NAB in Avenfield and Flagship Cases.
On March 16, the accountability court had adjourned Avenfield Reference hearing till March 20.
When the hearing began, prosecution witness Wajid Zia, former head of the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) recorded his statement and presented several documents related to the Avenfield case from the JIT report.
He submitted a real sealed letter of Qatari prince in accountability court hearing references against Sharif family.
Wajid Zia presented the letter after which Maryam’s lawyer said it’s not the letter that was submitted on Thursday. Zia’s counsel told that this letter was received from Supreme Court’s (SC) registrar office while the other one was obtained from Foreign Office.
Trust deed of Maryam and Hussain Nawaz was also presented in the court over which Wajid Zia said that he wants to show the documents of Dutch bank but he is not finding them at this time.
Maryam’s counsel Amjad Pervez and Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Haris questioned the legality of the evidence being presented and objected that they are copies of photocopies and unverified documents.
Moreover, the court accepted the land registry of Nielsen and Nescoll company as well as the ‘Qatari letter’.
The hearing was then adjourned until March 20, when Zia will continue recording his statement.Earlier, Talking to media inside accountability court, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has blamed on Friday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of deceiving the nation.
Nawaz Sharif said everyone knows who is behind PPP and PTI, adding that these parties only wish to come into power through a secret door.
He suggested to always welcome positive amendments in the system as several things unearth during intensive situations.
He said that PML N will include judicial reforms in its upcoming election manifesto, terming it a need of the hour.
“The door of reforms should always remain open,” he asserted.
The PML-N supremo made the remarks while interacting with reporters inside the accountability court hearing corruption cases against him and his family.
He claimed that they have not taken assistance from any international body, unlike the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), as they have enough material on their own.Nawaz also questioned the purpose of removing him as the PML-N president, saying they will continue to play their role to ensure transparent elections.
“If they wanted us to lose in the Senate elections, then they should have used their own power,” he said further.
Hitting out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Peoples Party, Nawaz said the purpose of their politics is to just fool the people, adding that, “they always look towards the umpire’s finger and want to enter through the backdoor”.
“Things have come to point where they are holding rallies of 100-200 people,” he deplored.
Referring to the surprise dismissal of the PML-N government in Balochistan earlier this year, Nawaz said, “what sort of democracy is this that an elected provincial government was removed”.The three-time premier also questioned the recent election of Balochistan independent senator Sadiq Sanjrani as chairman of the Upper House.
“Who is Sanjrani. He was named by a group of six senators and became the chairman. Everyone knows who is behind them,” claimed Nawaz.
Earlier, Former premier Nawaz arrived in court earlier along with daughter Maryam and son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar as the hearing went under way. This was the first time the former premier remained in court as Zia recorded his statement.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed three interim corruption references against the Sharif family in September last year in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case. The bureau recently filed supplementary references in all three cases as well.
