No defence needed in graft case, Sharif tells court

Asserts NAB could not provide any evidence of corruption

ISLAMABAD: After the Avenfield property case, deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif also excused to present any defense in Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference, telling the accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday that the prosecution could not prove its charges against him.

Sharif concluded his statement under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Afterwards the court sought final arguments from both the sides.

He said he would not present anything in his defence because the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) could not prove its case against him.



The former premier claimed that the case against him was initiated on the basis of allegations levelled by his political rivals and the report of joint investigation team (JIT) in Panama Papers case, which he said was biased.

He said the report had declared him as the “real owner” of Al-Azizia Steel Mills and the Hill Metal Establishment, but he was not the owner nor was he a ‘benamidaar’ of both these businesses. He said NAB could not present any evidence, proving that he had established Al-Azizia or the Hill Metal.

Sharif stated that he did not transfer any money abroad to his sons for their education, living or business. NAB also could not prove that he [Sharif] was the guardian of Hussain and Hasan Nawaz and that they were the benamidaars, he added.

Sharif was of the view that no witness except the JIT head Wajid Zia and NAB’s investigation officer (IO), gave statements against him. He claimed that both the statements against him could not be accepted as evidence against him.

The JIT and the NAB IO had accepted that there were no documents to prove that he [Sharif] had been the owner of Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment, Sharif said.

He repeated his earlier statement to the court that Al-Azizia was established by his father [Mian Muhammad Sharif] in 2001, when Hussain Nawaz was 29-year-old. He said that at that time he was not holding any public office.

He said the amount sent by his son Hussain Nawaz in 2010 was disclosed in his tax returns and stressed that receiving money from son is a traditional practice in Pakistan. As a son, Hussain Nawaz had gifted this money, he said, adding that the transaction couldn’t be given any other meaning.

The former prime minister also gave references of his development projects introduced during his regime to show his loyalty to Pakistan. He said his father had installed the industry in 1937, adding that he had left the business 40 years back.

His children were independent to do business and he had nothing to do with it, he continued, adding that his 40-year-long political career was clean and there was no burden on his conscience regarding any wrongdoing. Sharif told the court he had rendered political sacrifice to prove himself as innocent.



The trial was carried out against him on the basis of assumptions, he said. The cases were started from the allegation of money laundering, tax theft and corruption but later the prosecution took the support of allegations regarding assets beyond known sources of income, which means no corruption was proved against him.

Sharif has said whenever a politician was booked under the typical charges of ‘Assets Beyond Means” it basically means that the accusers have no proof of their baseless accusations.

Addressing the judge, he said that rigorous efforts were made to link and implicate him in matters that had nothing to do with him.

The deposed prime minister said his father established the industry in 1937; however, he had dissociated himself from the business 40 years ago.

He said his sons were financially independent adults and had been managing their business in compliance with the laws of the country they reside in.

“Therefore, it just does not make any sense to tie their financial dealings with his,” Sharif added.

“There was not a single proof of wrongdoing presented during the course of this never-ending investigation, the most substantial proof of which is the statement by Junaid Zia and his Investigation Officer. They have admitted under oath before this honorable court that there is no proof of all the accusations levelled against me,” he said.

Sharif said he felt proud and content that despite dragging every member of his family -- from his ancestors right down to his grandchildren -- there had not been a penny of corruption, misappropriation or kickbacks found by the rigorous investigators.

“Mainly because all this fiasco was run on speculations and anything run on baseless speculations cannot last,” he said.

“A case that started from alleging corruption worth billions of rupees, mass money laundering and tax evasion eventually landed on the same clichéd tag of “Assets Beyond Means”.”

Sharif pleaded before the court that he had sacrificed politically, socially and domestically to prove his innocence before the law because his conscience and his political career spanning four decades was clean.



He mentioned that he had suffered irreparable damage -- both politically and in his private life -- during the case, but he did not back down, because he had faith in God Almighty and expectation of justice from the court.

“Pakistan, today is blessed with the most efficient communication network of motorways from Peshawar to Karachi and the progress and development of Pakistan under the PML-N is unprecedented in the 65 years preceding our service,” he said.

“We brought peace from the internal-strife-marred Balochistan to the law and order disaster of body-bags and shutdowns in Karachi; restored a sense of wellbeing among Pakistanis; pulled the country out of the deep red shadows of extensive power-outages and bloodshed; held the crucial censuses; gave massive resources to boost key sectors of the republic vis-à-vis agriculture, education and healthcare; uprooted terrorism from the country and reincarnated foreign relations of Pakistan; brought massive investments into Pakistan with the CPEC leading with over 50 billion dollars; stood strong by our Kashmiri brethren and advocated their right to self-determination and the tyrannical occupation of India aggressively at all regional and international platforms.

“All these are glaring evidence of the fact that PML-N left a substantially better Pakistan for its people at the end of 2018 that what was handed to them in 2013,” he said.

“As far as this case is concerned, the honorable judge and the entire world is aware of what had been going on in the name of “accountability” for the past two and half years. “There is no precedent of such accountability in the entire history of the country,” he added.