Judgment day: Nawaz’s fate hangs in balance

Verdict in Al Azizia, Flagship references to be announced

ISLAMABAD: In compliance with the order of the Supreme Court, the accountability court is all set to announce the verdict in Al Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investments references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif today (Monday).

Sharif arrived in Islamabad from Lahore on Sunday and met his younger brother and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif at the Ministers’ Enclave.

Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik is expected to announce the judgement in the two references in the morning, while security has been tightened around the judicial complex.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had appealed that the former prime minister be convicted on the charges of possessing assets beyond known sources of income under NAB Ordinance Section 9A5.

If the charges are proved, Sharif can be awarded 14 years imprisonment and a fine. According to Section 9A5, “A public office holder found involved in corruption or corrupt practices, or he himself or his dependent or benamidar has property or assets which are not in line with his income, the section will be applicable.”

The assets exceeding the income and made by corruption could be confiscated by the government.

NAB’s case states that Hussain Nawaz, the elder son of Nawaz Sharif, established Al Azizia Steel Mills in 2001 and Hill Metals Establishment in 2005 with an overall investment of 5.4 million dirhams and did not provide the money trail.

NAB, through its evidences, tried to prove that 88 per cent of the profit of Hill Metals was sent to Sharif in his Pakistani bank accounts, while Sharif was the real owner and Hussain benamidar.

Without offering defence, Sharif said Al Azizia and Hill Metals were of Hussain, adding that the money coming from Hussain was transferred through legal channels.

In the Flagship Reference, NAB tried to prove that Hasan Nawaz was the benamidar of Sharif. NAB tried to prove that in 2001, Hasan created 16 companies, including Flagship Investments and Capital FZE with an investment of 4.2 million dirhams.

Sharif also did not offer defence in the Flagship Investments case, saying that the business belonged to Hasan and he (Nawaz) had nothing to do with the businesses.

Hasan and Hussain were co-accused but on their continuous absence, the court declared them absconders. Hasan and Hussain did not remain part of this trial and the court separated Sharif’s case.

Overview

In view of July 28, 2017 verdict, the trial of Sharif has been monitored by the apex court. Justice Ijazul Ahsan is the monitoring judge, who supervised the trial of the PML-N supremo.

The accountability court shared the progress report of the trial with the monitoring judge every month.

On the other hand, the Sharif family’s legal team consistently expressed reservations over the supervision of the trials by the SC judge.

Khawaja Haris, the counsel for Sharif, contended in his arguments on a review petition before the five-judge larger bench that supervision of the accountability court’s proceedings would affect fair trial.

The counsel alleged that the SC itself had become the complainant, prosecutor and judge in the matter.

In its July 28 verdict, the SC asked the accountability court to decide the four references within six months. NAB filed the references within the stipulated time.

However, the accountability court got the eighth extension to complete the trial.

The legal experts wondered why the accountability court announced verdict in one reference (Avenfield) before the general elections. In view of that judgement, both Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were behind bars but later both were granted bail by the Islamabad High Court. Now the matter is pending in the apex court.

Panamagate litigation started since October 2016.

The Sharif family changed legal teams several times during the period.

Firstly, Salman Aslam Butt and Akram Sheikh were representing the family.

On January 2017, when the larger bench resumed proceedings, the Sharif family came up with a new legal team, comprising Makhdoom Ali Khan, Salman Akram Raja and Shahid Hamid.

During the proceedings, political leaders made the SC premises a political circus, wherein they came to witness the hearing and later made their obligation to address media-persons there.

PTI chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan witnessed all Panamagate’s proceedings in the courtroom.

Likewise, senior PML-N leaders also attended all the hearings. Later in the evenings, TV channels conducted talk shows on the development of the case. Though sitting capacity in Courtroom No 2 was limited but it was quite pleasant to witness the top court’s inquisitorial proceedings in the Panamagate proceedings.

In February, one member of the bench - Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh - had cardiac arrest but the hearing of the case was resumed after a couple of weeks.  During the hearing, the bench members observed that the court wanted to announce the judgement, which could be remembered for decades.

In view of such observations, the people’s curiosity in the outcome of the proceedings increased.

During the hearing, the larger bench members were visibly divided on several law points. So same happened as two members of the bench - Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmad - on April 20 disqualified Sharif for giving false statement on acquiring London properties. However, three majority judges (Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh and Justice Ijazul Ahsan) opted for further probe into the matter by forming a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising representatives of civil and military agencies.

Till that time, the PML-N followers were jubilant as Sharif narrowly escaped disqualification. Even, sweets were distributed. On the other hand, the PTI was little upset over the decision.

However, the SC decided to form a powerful JIT in this matter. Even, the judges, who were members of the implementation bench, themselves, selected names of the JIT members.

On May 6, the SC constituted a six-member JIT, but the Sharif family did not object over the nominations at the initial stage. With the passage of time, the team started to work. At that time, the PTI leaders were showing concern over the mode of JIT’s investigation, but interestingly, the PML-N members were relaxed.

When the JIT started investigation by summoning Sharif family members, the PML-N leaders started criticising the team. They also questioned the registrar’s WhatsApp message to SECP chairman regarding the nomination of JIT’s member.

When the JIT summoned Sharif’s cousin Tariq Shafi to record his statement, he failed to give a satisfactory reply.

After Shafi’s appearance, the Sharif family challenged the formation of JIT in the apex court as well as accused the team members of harassing witnesses. However, the court declined their objections. On July 10, the JIT submitted the final report with new revelations related to business affairs of the Sharif family. The issue related to the employment of Sharif in his son’s UAE-based company Capital FZE surfaced for the first time in view of the JIT’s report.

However, legal experts were expressing concern that without the assistance of powerful stakeholders, it was not possible for JIT to bring the documents related to Capital FZE from UAE.

Again, the Sharif family changed their top attorney and Khawaja Haris replaced senior lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan.

Thrice, Sharifs made changes in their legal team.

Finally, the same larger bench on July 28 disqualified Sharif on the concealment of his salary, which he was legally entitled to get from Capital FZE. Likewise, Sharif launched a campaign against the judges.

After an anti-judiciary campaign, tension between the PML-N and the SC increased and the party faced immense loss.

Three PML-N leaders Daniyal Aziz, Talal Chaudhry and Nehal Hashmi were disqualified in contempt case.

Likewise, the SC also disqualified Sharif as party head in view of the Panamagate July 28, 2017 verdict.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2018.