Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been owning and possessing the Avenfield properties since 1993, the prosecution witness and investigation officer of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told an Accountability Court on Wednesday.
While testifying before Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir in the Avenfield reference, prosecution witness Imran Dogar said that on the basis of material collected and referred to Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that probed the Panama Papers case, it was established during the course of investigations that accused Nawaz Sharif despite being a public office-holder owns and possesses the Avenfield properties through offshore companies, Nielsen and Nescoll, as benamidar.
He further said that the accused persons including Sharif, his sons Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, daughter Maryam Safdar and son-in-law Captain Muhammad Safdar (retd) have failed to provide the source for acquisition of the Avenfield properties, which have been in their possession since 1993.
The witness said that the accused persons produced various documents including trust deeds of Nielsen and Nescoll companies and the Coomber Group before the Supreme Court.
The defense counsel, Khawaja Haris, while objecting to the prosecution's statement said that the entire portion constitutes inferences drawn as well as opinion of investigation officer which is not admissible in the eyes of law.
To this, Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi said that the portion is a fact, as material collected was analyzed and examined by the witness during the course of investigation.
Dogar further said that during the hearing of the Panama Papers case, the trust deeds of Nielsen and Nescoll were submitted by accused Maryam Nawaz before the JIT in support of the stance taken by her and other accused regarding the acquisition of the Avenfield properties. However, later on the trust deeds were found to be fake and fabricated in light of forensic report of Robert Radley, a UK-based forensic expert.
He said that accused Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz, Maryam Safdar, and Muhammad Safdar being banamidar and associates aided, abetted, conspired and connived with accused Nawaz Sharif and were found involved in commission of corruption and corrupt practices under the NAO 1999 and schedule attached thereto.
The witness said that the accused persons failed to appear before the NAB's investigation team despite issuance of notices to them on different dates -August 18, 2017 and December 28, 2017.
He said that the anti-graft body had received two letters sent by Advocate Amjad Pervaiz, Khawaja Haris and Nazeer Ahmed Bhutta on August 22 and December 30, 2017. It was written in the call-off notices issued to the accused in case of non-appearance that it would be construed that they have nothing more to offer in their defense, he said.
Dogar said that on the basis of material collected by the JIT and referred to in its report, he prepared an interim investigation report on September 6, 2017 and recommended filing of reference against the accused persons. The competent authority after examination of interim investigation report and material on record filed the interim reference on September 8, 2017.
The witness further said that he prepared a supplementary investigation report and recommended filing of a supplementary reference against the accused persons on January 12, 2018. The competent authority after the examination of investigation report and material available on record filed a supplementary reference against the accused persons before the Accountability Court on January 22, 2018 on the basis of material collected and referred by JIT, he said.
He said that the Bureau also followed the mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests initiated by the JIT. On March 27, 2018, he received a phone call from Director General NAB Zahir Shah and he was informed that the reply of MLA request from the UK central authority has been received, he said, adding that on the next day (March 28, 2018) he visited the office of Shah and was handed over the photocopies of the record received from the UK central authority to proceed further.
The witness further testified that the said record contains land registries of London properties, utility bills and council tax and the same were placed before the Accountability Court.
He further said that he recorded the statements of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) official Sidra Mansur and Additional Director Coordination NAB (Operation) Shakeel Ahmed on August 25, 2017.
He said that Wajid Zia, the head of JIT, joined the investigation on August 31, 2017 and his statement was recorded. He recorded the statement of Mazhar Raza Bangash, a witness of the Avenfield reference, who joined investigations on August 31, 2017.
The witness said that another Abdul Rasheed of Orr Dignam and Co joined the investigations on September 6, 2017 and recorded his statement. The witness said that during the course of investigations, he along with case officer Sultan Nazir visited the UK and recorded the statement of Akhtar Raja of Quist Solicitors on December 14, 2017 and the statement of Robert Radley on December 15, 2017 as both were associated with the proceedings by the JIT.
After Dogar completed recording of his statement, defense counsel Haris resumed his cross-examination. The court adjourned hearing till today (Thursday). At the outset of proceedings, Haris informed the court that the flight of Sharif and his daughter was not allowed to take off from Lahore due to bad weather conditions. He also filed separate applications seeking exemption for Sharif and Maryam from attending the hearing on Wednesday. The court approved the request but directed Nawaz Sharif's son-in-law Capitan Muhammad Safdar (retd) to remain present in the court.
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