A division bench of Islamabad High Court on Monday issued notices to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on an application of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, challenging the alleged alteration in prosecution's star witness Wajid Zia's statement in Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference case.
The division bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard the petition of the former prime minister filed through his counsel Khawaja Haris Advocate. The court after hearing the preliminary arguments deferred the case until today (September 4) after issuing notices to the NAB.
In the application, Sharif's counsel accused Wajid Zia, the head of Panama Papers' joint investigation team (JIT), of changing his statement during cross-examination before the Accountability Court (AC) on August 30.
Nawaz Sharif in the plea prayed to the court to exclude Zia's statements recorded on August 30. He also requested the court to allow Nawaz's legal team to cross-examine Wajid Zia again.
On the previous hearing before the AC, Khawaja Haris, the lead lawyer of Nawaz Sharif, accused the accountability judge of tampering the record in the Al-Azizia and Hill Metal Establishment reference, as the court gave directions to the authorities concerned to submit relevant parts of the Panama Papers JIT report's Volume No10.
During Wajid Zia's cross-examination, Haris alleged that Accountability Court-II Judge Arshad Malik altered the statements of the prosecution's star witness on the insistence of NAB prosecutor. This, he added, was done during the witness's cross-examination without providing him with an opportunity to contest the prosecutor's assertion.
He said that the judge should have listened to NAB's objection, taken his answer, written a new sentence instead of changing the previous one but the judge simply changed the sentence on the NAB prosecutor's objection. Later, he left the courtroom, saying that the court made the change without listening to him.
"The learned court changed the already recorded answer given by the witness in cross-examination by deleting the words 'it is incorrect to suggest' and adding another sentence as part of this witness' statement in the form of a suggestion," four associates of Haris stated in an application seeking adjournment till Monday (September 3) to enable the defense team to avail remedy against the change.
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