ISLAMABAD: Wajid Zia — the bureaucrat who was appointed by the Supreme Court as head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigating money laundering allegations against the Sharif family — has owned before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) the contents of the probe report that cost former prime minister Nawaz Sharif his job, sources say.

“I own and endorse the contents of the report which has been submitted to the Honourable Supreme Court and any certified copy of the report issued by the registrar, Supreme Court, to the NAB investigators,” Mr Zia said in his statement.

It is believed that Mr Zia is the main prosecution witness in all the three references filed by NAB in an accountability court on the top court’s instructions. The references pertain to the Avenfield properties of London, the Flagship Investment Company and the Al-Azizia Mills.

The sources say that Mr Zia appeared before an investigation team of NAB in the last week of August and testified that he and other members of the JIT had procured key evidence against Mr Sharif and his family members, and handed over these documents to the apex court’s registrar during hearings of the Panama Papers case.

According to the sources, he told the NAB team that among the key pieces of evidence procured against the former premier were the mutual legal assistance responses from governments of the British Virgin Islands and United Arab Emirates that were linked to the money trail of London’s Avenfield properties.

He said the documents relating to the Jable Ali Free Zone Authority that provided some details of Mr Sharif’s job in his son’s company was among the record the JIT had provided to the Supreme Court. The top court had disqualified Mr Sharif as a parliamentarian for not declaring an un-withdrawn salary from that company.

Mr Zia also told the bureau’s team that the JIT submitted the forensic report to the court which claimed that a trust deed filed by Maryam Nawaz had been forged.

The sources quoted him as saying that the JIT had provided the entire record of the case to the top court, including bank documents, income tax and wealth tax records and details of different companies owned by the Sharif family, in 21 cartons.

He said the JIT also provided the income tax and wealth statements of former finance minister Ishaq Dar to the registrar of the apex court.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2017