Court proceedings against Nawaz enter final stage

JIT head’s cross-examination likely to be completed today

ISLAMABAD: The court proceedings in the Flagship Investments reference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif have entered the final stage as the cross-examination of JIT head Wajid Zia is expected to be completed on Monday (today).

Sharif will appear before the accountability court in Islamabad on Monday. He could not come to the court at the last two hearings because of protests by religious parties.

The former premier’s counsel Khawaja Haris has been cross-examining Zia for 10 days and Monday will be the 11th.



After Zia, the statement of investigation officer in the case will be recorded and then Haris will cross-examine him as well.

After Haris completes his cross-examination, Sharif will record his statement under Section 342 after which the court will announce its judgement in the reference.

Last year, an accountability court had indicted the former prime minister in the third graft reference pertaining to the ownership of Flagship Companies Ltd and other offshore companies.

According to the charge-sheet against the former PM, Sharif had told the JIT that he was a shareholder in 15 companies, including Flagship Invest¬ments, Hartstone Properties, Que Holdings, Quint Eaton Place 2, Quint Saloane, Quaint, Flagship Securities, Quint Gloucester Place, Quint Paddington, Flagship Developments, Alanna Services (BVI), Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron, Ansbacher, Coomber and Capital FZE, Dubai.



The court was told that his sons, Hassan and Hussain were his dependents in 1989 and 1990. However, Sharif, submitted a record of assets for Hassan from 1990-1995, the charge-sheet read.

The charge-sheet also observed that Sharif had held important positions in public office, including those of chief minister and prime minister.

As per the charge sheet, ousted premier Sharif remained chairman of Capital FZE from 2007-14.

Sharif had been disqualified for lifetime from holding any public office by the Supreme Court over corruption charges last year.