ISLAMABAD: The accountability court may miss the six-month deadline to conclude four references -– three against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and one against defunct finance minister Ishaq Dar.

The main reason for not being able to meet the deadline is the supplementary references which the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed in the accountability court at a time when its judge Mohammad Bashir had almost completed recording the testimony of all the prosecution witnesses.

There were over 50 prosecution witnesses in the four references but the supplementary references, filed by NAB last month, also included over 40 witnesses.

In order to meet the deadline, the accountability judge sometimes continued working even after 10pm as Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the Supreme Court is directly supervising the proceedings.

NAB had filed the references on Sept 7, 2017, and the deadline is going to expire on March 6.

In addition to the over 40 prosecution witnesses, the court has to record testimony of the accused persons – Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, son-in-law retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, defunct minister Ishaq Dar, National Bank of Pakistan President Saeed Ahmed as well as two other accused cited in the supplementary reference against Mr Dar.

The trial court has to record statements of the accused persons under section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The court may also be asked to record testimony of defence witnesses, including Qatari Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, sources privy to the development told Dawn.

They said the defence counsel may request the accountability court to record testimony of Prince Al-Thani through a video link.

Two prosecution witnesses, Akhtar Raja, cousin of Wajid Zia, the head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), and forensic expert Robert William Radley, have already testified through a video link.

The statements of the accused persons as well as of the defence counsel are recorded after the entire prosecution witnesses would have recorded their testimony.

When contacted, Amjad Pervez, one of the defence counsel, told Dawn that it had not yet been decided whether the defence witnesses would be produced or not.

NAB on Sept 7, 2017 filed interim references against Mr Sharif and defunct minister Dar under the direction of the Supreme Court.

The apex court on July 28, 2017, while accepting the petitions of Imran Khan, Sheikh Rashid and other political rivals of the ruling PML-N asked the accountability court to prepare and file a reference in the trial court in two months. The five-member bench of the apex court directed the accountability judge to complete the proceeding in six months.

At present, Mr Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Mr Safdar are facing the trial while Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz have been declared as proclaimed offenders by the accountability court since they did not join the trial proceedings.

On April 20, 2017, the apex court constituted the six-member JIT, which submitted its report to the apex court on July 10.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2018