ISLAMABAD: A prosecution witness, while testifying before the Accountability Court in Toshakhana case involving former president Asif Ali Zardari and two former premiers produced various documents before the court regarding one luxury vehicle given to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from the Toshakhana.
The prosecution witness, Zubair Siddiqui, an official of the Cabinet Division produced various documents before the Accountability Court-III judge, Syed Asghar Ali, regarding a luxury vehicle given to Sharif.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed the Toshakhana reference against Zardari, and two former prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, and others, for allegedly acquiring vehicles and gifts from Toshakhana in violation of rules and regulations.
At the start of the hearing, the associate of Zardari's counsel and counsel of Abdul Ghani Majeed filed separate applications before the court seeking to grant one day exemption to their clients from personal appearance before it, which the court has approved.
NAB prosecutor, Irfan Bhola, as well as defence counsels, Arshad Tabraiz, Shiraz Rajpal, and Jamshaid Malik, appeared before the court.
Prosecution witness, Zubair Siddiqui produced various documents including copy of letter dated December 17, 2008 with subject assessment of value of Marcedes Benz car IDH-78, copy of challan dated December 19, 2008 amounting Rs636,888 deposited by Mian Nawaz Sharif, a letter dated December 19, 2008 of Cabinet Division Toshakhana with subject disposal of Marcedes benz car along with copy of CNIC of Ather Hassan Qureshi handing taking profarma regarding IDH-78 transferred to Nawaz Sharif, summary for the prime minister dated August 29, 2008, with subject of assessment of value of Marcedez Bez IDH-78 and office memorandum dated May 2, 1997 of Aiwan-e-Sadr with subject of assessment of gift presented to the then president, Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari.
The other documents include, summary of finance, planning and economic affairs, with subject information regarding Marcedes 560 SEL, copy of office memorandum dated December 4, 1997, assessment of gifts presented to the president, office memorandum December 11, 1997, disposal of gifts along with challan amounting Rs890,075 deposited by Forooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, copy of office memorandum, March 10, 2000, rule for acceptance of gifts by government servants, control cooperation, autonomous and semi autonomous bodies and nationalised institutions.
The court completed recording of statement of first witness in the case. After competing statement of witness Siddiqui, the court started recording statement of another witness namely, Muhammad Ahad, deputy secretary Cabinet Division. He said that he appeared before the NAB investigation officer (IO) July 22, 2019, regarding the investigation of Toshakhana case. He said he produced documents before the IO.
The court adjourned the case till December 10, following the request of the defence counsel. Prosecution witness Ahad will continue his statement during the next hearing.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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