JIT head Zia records statement in Pindi

He will also record his statement before NAB investigators in Lahore today

ISLAMABAD: The head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that investigated the Sharif family’s overseas assets has recorded his statement before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at its Rawalpindi office.

Wajid Zia spent more than two hours at the NAB office in Rawalpindi and recorded his statement before the investigating team. Zia will now go to NAB’s Lahore office on Wednesday (today) to record another statement in a separate NAB reference against the Sharifs. Both statements would be recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc).

Legal experts say that the statements of all the accused persons offered before the JIT will be attached in the proposed reference after Zia’s statement is taken. None of the Sharifs have recorded their statements before NAB.

Former NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Raja Amir Abbas, however, wondered why NAB is not arresting any of the Sharifs if they are not cooperating with investigators. He said hundreds of accused persons had been arrested by NAB during past investigations, adding that there is enough material to file references against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children. NAB is expected to file references against Nawaz Sharif and his children after Eid.

Earlier, the top graft watchdog had submitted an application to Justice Ijazul Ahsan seeking permission to record the statements of the six JIT members, which it said was essential to finalise the corruption references against the Sharif family.

Justice Ahsan has been appointed by the chief justice to supervise and monitor the implementation of the apex court verdict in the Panamagate case.



In this regard, the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office wrote a letter to Zia instructing him that the JIT members should record their statements before NAB in order to ensure that all legal requirements and formalities are fulfilled.

“I am directed to state that while considering the request of NAB dated August 19, the monitoring judge of this court has been pleased to direct that in order to ensure that all legal requirements and formalities are fulfilled and to avoid any possible lacuna that may damage the case, let the head of the JIT and any other concern member who had collected the relevant evidence…record their statements before NAB,” reads the letter.

Meanwhile, the Sharif family’s legal team has expressed serious concern over the order passed by the monitoring judge. “This is not going to be a witness statement. It is going to be the statement of the monitoring judge of the Supreme Court,” a senior member of the legal team told The Express Tribune.

The Sharif family had strongly reacted to the appointment of the monitoring judge. They contend that the Constitution does not confer the top court with jurisdiction to superintend and oversee the proceedings of accountability courts in the Panamagate case.

The Sharif family, in its review petition, said, “It is not understood what the monitoring of a trial by a judge of the apex court of the country will entail.”

Likewise, Supreme Court Bar Association president Rasheed A Rizvi also objected to the monitoring of NAB proceedings in the Panamagate case. Legal experts said the Supreme Court was unlikely to share the methods by which the judge would supervise the proceedings.



However, this is not the first case where the Supreme Court has monitored NAB proceedings.

In December 2009, a 17-judge bench constituted monitoring cells to keep an eye on the progress of graft cases that were reopened after the National Reconciliation Ordinance was nullified. Justice Ghulam Rabbani was designated the head of the central monitoring cell. Similar cells were established at all four high courts, where the respective chief justices monitored the progress and proceedings in all NRO cases.