Key prosecution witness Wajid Zia on Wednesday told the Accountability Court, which is hearing corruption cases against the Sharif family members, that Joint Investigation Team (JIT) did not have any document to prove that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is the owner of the Avenfield properties.
Zia while testifying before the Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir in the Avenfield properties reference, said neither has he any document nor was any document produced before the JIT to prove the ownership of Sharif regarding the Avenfield properties. He said this while responding to a question posed by defence counsel Khawaja Haris.
To another question, he said he has no evidence or document to prove that Sharif was the beneficial owner of the Avenfield properties. He said that the Avenfield apartments are owned by Nielsen and Nescoll companies. Zia said he did not come across anything that proves that Sharif paid rent or utility bills of these properties in question.
He also said that he did not receive any letter from Mossack Fonseca that Sharif was the beneficial or real owner of Nielson and Nescoll companies. To another question posed by Haris, Zia said that he has no information that Sharif was among the directors or shareholders of these companies. No witness appeared before the JIT that stated that bearer shares of the two companies were ever held by Sharif.
The witness said that he had not come across any documents which showed that Sharif had ever made any correspondence regarding the Avenfield properties with government agencies, departments and banks. He also said that he did not see any bank account of Sharif from where any amount was utilized for these properties. He said that the Avenfield properties were purchased in the name of Nielsen and Nescoll in the years 1993, 1995 and 1996.
Haris asked Zia if law firm Mossack Fonseca had written any letter to the JIT on beneficial ownership of the flats. On this Zia said the JIT had not directly communicated with the law firm. Zia said that there is no document that shows that any institution wrote to the British Virgin Island (BVI) Financial Investigation Agency (FIA). He said that the JIT had sent a letter to the BVI FIA seeking certification of correspondence between the agency and Mossack Fonseca in June 2012.
When Haris inquired whether BVI FIA had responded, Zia said that he failed to recollect. Haris asked Zia he knew who directed the 2012 correspondence between BVI FIA and Mossack Fonseca. "We are not privy to this information," replied Zia.
To another question, he said, "It is partially correct that we found out about the beneficial owner on the basis of letters provided by the Mossak Fonseca, the legal firm." Zia added that the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations 2008 and Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Code of Practice 2008 were also two legal instruments used by the JIT for this purpose.
Zia said that the JIT did not collect any document that proved that Sharif was the owner or shareholder of Gulf Steel Mill. Tariq Shafi is the witness who stated that the whole Sharif family had interest in all business, he said, adding that no witness stated that Sharif was owner, shareholder or among the directors of Gulf Steel Mill.
It is correct that Sharif had not been involved in the receipt and deposit derived from the sale of Gulf Steel Mill, according to documents available to the JIT, he said. He said that it is correct that during the investigations he came across share sale agreement dated 1978 from where it could be gathered there were two partners - Tariq Sharif and Muhammad Hussain. He also said that as per contents of said share sale agreement, Muhammad Hussain was dead. Tariq Shafi informed the JTI that the heir of Muhammad Hussain is his son living in London.
Haris asked Zia, "Did you make any attempt to call any of the legal heirs of Muhammad Hussain for associating them in the investigation?" Zia replied that JIT was not able to locate legal heir of Muhammad Hussain. Haris asked Zia if he made it a part of the report that JIT was not able to locate the legal heir of Hussain. Zia replied, "I think we did it but I will have to check the report."
He also said that it had come to the knowledge of JIT through evidence that Al-Azizia Steel Mill was being run by Hussain Nawaz. "It is correct that the evidence to this effect was based on the statement of Hussain Nawaz," he added. The witness while answering a question posed by Haris, said that the JIT did not collect any document to show that Nawaz Sharif was participating in the business of Al-Aziza Steel Mill. The court adjourned the hearing of the case till today (Thursday).
Comments
Comments are closed.