Key prosecution witness and head of joint investigation team that probed the Panama Papers case, Wajid Zia on Monday said that JIT has a source document which shows Hill Metals Establishment (HME) as a company. While testifying before the Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik who is hearing the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and HME case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members, Zia said that there was a source document that showed HME as a company. He said this while responding to defense counsel Khawaja Haris during the cross-examination.
Former Premier Nawaz Sharif was present in the courtroom during the hearing where he was shifted from Adiala Jail Rawalpindi amid tight security arrangements.
The witness said the sources document was provided to the JIT on June 20, 2017 and it was a photocopy and did not bear the signature of anyone.
The witness said the JIT sent the mutual legal assistance (MLA) request to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) authorities before receiving the said source document. He said there is a document available with JIT which had referred Hill Modern Industry of Metal Establishment as a company.
Zia said the MLA request sent to the KSA had informed the authorities concerned that HME was incorporated in specified years 2004-05. Before the MLA request was sent to the KSA, no witness before the JIT had stated that HME was incorporated in 2004-05, he said.
Zia said that it was not mentioned in any document available with the JIT at the time of sending MLA request to the KSA that HME was incorporated in 2004-05. There was no mention of any document that HME was incorporated in the KSA in 2004-05, he said, adding that the word 'incorporation' was not used in any document with reference to HME.
To another question, he said that the word 'incorporate' was not used with reference to Hill Modern Industry and Metal Establishment.
Zia further said that in one of the documents available with the JIT, the date of registration of Hill Modern Industry and Metals Establishment was given as 7-1-1426 Hijra, which means it was incorporated in 2005.
The document he has referred to regarding Hill Modern Industry and Metals establishment shows it as sole proprietorship and not as a company. The document was received by the JIT after sending an MLA request to the KSA, he said. The court adjourned hearing till Tuesday (today) and Haris will continue cross-examination of Zia.