Court grants three-day exemption to Sharif

JIT chief admits Sharif never maintained a bank account with Standard Chartered Bank's F-7 Branch


Rizwan Shehzad September 24, 2018
Former prime ministers of Pakistan. PHOTO: EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court hearing corruption references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his two sons granted a three-day exemption to the former premier on account of the recent death of his wife Kulsoom Nawaz.

The exemption was granted in an application moved by Sharif's counsel Khawaja Haris, who is defending the Sharifs in the Al-Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment reference. While also citing some personal commitments, the application said demise of Kulsoom had affected Sharif's mental and physical health.

"The applicant has been inundated by visits from his relatives and well-wishers from all over the country on a daily basis, and this has resulted in his suffering from fatigue, which has been further compounded by grief suffered not only on account of demise of his late wife, but also because of being disabled from spending time with her and being beside her during the last days of her life," said the application.

The defence had requested a five-day exemption in its application. The application also nominated Ibrahim Haroon to appear in court in lieu of Sharif in the exempted time period.

Objecting to the plea, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor Wasiq Malik stressed on lack of extraordinary circumstances to grant the exemption. He further pointed out that no certificate regarding Sharif's health was provided to the court and there is no provision in law to grant an exemption on the grounds mentioned in the application.

Haris, defending his client, said it is normal for a person to get affected in such circumstances and assured that the trial will not be affected due to Sharif's exemption. After the exemption was granted, the defence resumed cross-examination of Panamagate joint investigation team (JIT) head Wajid Zia.

Cross-examination

The JIT head admitted that Sharif never maintained a bank account with the Standard Chartered Bank's F-7 Branch in Islamabad but his statements of accounts with the bank's Lahore branches were stamped by the capital's branch.

Zia during his cross examination in the NAB's Al-Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment reference said one of the bank statements of the former PM was obtained from the Standard Chartered Bank's Wapda Town Lahore branch but it was stamped by the capital's branch.

NAB opposes transferring pending references against Sharifs

NAB's key witness said he had seen the Standard Chartered Bank statement from pages 185 to 197 of volume 6 of the JIT report which does not bear the stamp of any bank officer. He, however, voluntarily added that the documents bear the stamp of the bank.

Subsequently, he admitted, Sharif's bank statement pertains to Lahore Wapda Town Branch and it is also correct that there is no stamp of the bank's Wapda Town branch on the documents. Instead, he said, the stamp on the documents is of Standard Chartered Bank Limited F-7 Branch, Islamabad.

Zia admitted that as per the JIT investigation this account was never maintained with Islamabad's branch and it cannot be ascertained from the statement of account as to who has appended the bank's stamp on the documents or on which date the stamp was affixed.

In addition, Zia admitted that the document doesn't bear any certificate of attestation and he had not recorded the statement of any bank official who has affixed the stamp on the statement of account.
While referring to some other statements of accounts pertaining to different branches of Standard Chartered Bank that are placed in the JIT's volume 6, he admitted that these documents also do not bear any certification, stamp of any bank official, stamp of the concerned branch or date under the stamp of the Standard Chartered Bank's F-7 branch affixed on them. He conceded that JIT did not record statement of any person who may have affixed the stamps on the documents.

During cross examination, it emerged that documents pertaining to the statement of accounts of Maryam Safdar also do not bear either the stamp of any bank officer or the stamp of any bank.

Also, he said, the documents also do not bear date under the stamp of the bank or the officer concerned. He admitted that the JIT had not recorded statement of any bank official with respect to any of the documents comprising the statement of accounts and cheques available in JIT report's volume 6.

Meanwhile, NAB filed an application before the Supreme Court requesting the court to allow it to withdraw a petition through which the bureau challenged a judgment of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to transfer two NAB references against the Sharif from one accountability court to another.  The apex court will take up the application on September 25 (today).

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ