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ISLAMABAD: The registrar of an accountability court in the capital on Tuesday returned three of the four references filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members in connection with the Panamagate probe.
The court only accepted one reference, against Mr Sharif and his sons Hussain and Hassan, related to the ownership of offshore companies.
The references returned to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) included the reference regarding the Avenfield properties in London, the Azizia Steel Mills in Jeddah and a reference about acquiring assets beyond known sources of income against incumbent Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
NAB had submitted four interim references to the accountability court on Friday. It is very rare that references once admitted for trial by an accountability court are returned to NAB for rectification.
Earlier, on Friday, the registrar had objected because the bureau had only filed three copies of the references instead of five, when there were a total of five accused.
According to NAB, the remaining two copies were submitted the same day.
A NAB spokesperson told Dawn that the bureau would address all objections of the accountability court by Wednesday (today) and would submit the missing documents.
“We have now completed all references and will again present them to the court. Four pages of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report which were missing… have been received and certified by the Supreme Court. They will be submitted to the accountability court on Wednesday,” he said.
A NAB source said the bureau had submitted interim references to meet the Sept 8 deadline imposed on the bureau by the Supreme Court, using whatever information was available. Further information regarding Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) sought from different countries, including Saudi Arabia and US, would be provided to the court later in the form of supplementary references.
Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2017
