Accountability Court on Wednesday testified the statement of a witness who provided CDs of interviews, speech in the National Assembly and address to the nation of the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, as well as interviews of his daughter and one of his sons to different private TV channels in connection with a supplementary reference filed against Sharif family with respect to the Avenfield properties.
At the outset of hearing, Khawaja Haris submitted an application before Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir, requesting that the CDs No 3 and 4, which are part of the supplementary reference, contain only audio recording while CD No 5 could not be played due to some technical problem.
The judge ordered to play the CDs in the courtroom and no fault was found in CDs No 3 and 4; however, CD No 5 was not functioning, for which the court provided him with another CD of the same interview. The NAB investigation officer told the court that they have checked all the CDs as well as the copies of these CDs and these are flawless.
The judge asked Haris that through which player/device he had played CDs. Haris replied that his team had played them through a DVD player. NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi in a lighter mood congratulated Khawaja Haris when the CDs began to play. Haris replied to NAB prosecutor, "Congratulations to you as the CDs provided by you start working in the court." The defense counsel later took back his application.
Earlier, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and his son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar(retd) arrived at the court amid tight security arrangements. The court had summoned five out of seven witnesses, including Syed Mubashir Tauqeer, an official of Ministry of Information, Abdul Waheed Khan, Director General Electronic Media, Muhammad Nazir, Deputy Director NAB Lahore, Waqas Ahmad, an employee of a private TV channel, and Zavir Mehmood, Assistant Director NAB.
The remaining two UK-based witnesses of supplementary reference are Robert W Radley, Principal Radley Forensic Document Laboratory and forensic handwriting and document examination expert, and Ahktar Raja, Principal Quist solicitors, whose statements will be recorded through a video link. The court recorded the statement of Abdul Waheed Khan on Wednesday and did not record statements of other witnesses due to paucity of time and adjourned the hearing till February 13.
Prosecution witness Abdul Waheed while recording his statement said that on January 5, 2018 two officers of NAB called on him at his office. "They showed me all CDs and documents (transcripts) which I have already forwarded to NAB and they took them back in their possession," he said.
He said he provided to NAB CDs and transcripts of interviews of Hussain Nawaz and Maryam Nawaz as well as the then prime minister's interviews, speech in the National Assembly and address to the nation. The witness said that the CDs of interviews of Hussain and Maryam were acquired from private TV channels while the CDs of the former prime minister's addresses were obtained from PTV.
To a question of Khawaja Haris during cross-examination, the witness said that the interviews and transcripts were prepared neither by him nor in his presence. He said he rechecked transcript after his staff prepared it. Haris pointed out that no date has been mentioned below the signature made by the witness over the transcript of interviews. After the cross-examination of the witness, the court adjourned hearing till February 13.
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