Accountability court: JIT chief's deposition starts

NAB, Sharif's lawyers argue over defence's objections

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court, hearing references filed by NAB against the Sharif family, started recording on Thursday the statement of the head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) Wajid Zia in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference.

Judge Muhammad Bashir of the Islamabad accountability court presided over the hearing.

Zia stated that he had been working as an additional director in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on April 20 last year when the Supreme Court had formed a JIT to probe into the establishment, sale, and liabilities of Gulf Steel Mills.

He said the JIT was tasked with investigating how the capital was transferred from Qatar to Saudi Arabia and onward to the UK.

The team had also been asked to confirm if a letter sent by Qatari Prince Hamad Bin Jasim in favour of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was authentic.

Moreover, he said that the investigation team had also been tasked to probe ‘gifts’ from Hussain Nawaz to his father Nawaz Sharif.

He said that the apex court had also asked the team to determine the actual owner of the London flats.



Zia said that the Supreme Court had given the team 60 days to submit its final report. All JIT members were nominated by the apex court on May 5, and the JIT submitted its 10-volume report on July 10 last year.

During the hearing, an argument arose between Khawaja Haris and NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi.

Abbasi complained about objections raised by Haris during Zia’s deposition, saying it would delay the statement, but Haris contended he was entitled to raise objections whenever necessary.

Zia said that the JIT had sent letters to the Qatari prince on May 13 and on the same day, it also wrote to the Secretary Foreign Affairs, requesting him to help deliver the letter to the prince.

Zia said that an officer of the Foreign Office, Afaq Ahmed, testified before the JIT on May 18 that its letter had been delivered.

He said that letters were again sent to both the Foreign Office and the Qatari prince on May 24 and June 22. Copies of these letters were produced before the court, to which Khawaja Haris objected that the documents produced were copies and not the original letters.

The hearing was later adjourned till Friday (today). The NAB’s prosecutor said that efforts would be made to finalise Wajid Zia’s statement in the next hearing.