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ISLAMABAD: Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT) head and star prosecution witness Wajid Zia testified before an accountability court on Thursday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had received last salary from the company of his son in August 2013.
During cross-examination in the Avenfield apartments reference, Mr Zia confirmed a document of Capital FZE — the company owned by Mr Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz — about disbursement of salary to the former premier. As per the document, which was in fact a screenshot, Mr Sharif and another person received salaries till August 2013. But it did not mention the name of any person to substantiate the JIT head’s claim. Salaries were disbursed to the two persons through over the counter (OTC) — a system in which salary is paid by hand to the recipient.
Mr Zia informed the court that since the document had been provided by the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (JAFZA) and prepared under the comprehensive system related to the protection of wages, it was treated as confirmed.
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However, the document contradicted the information provided by JAFZA to the JIT during investigation into the Panama Papers case. JAFZA’s letter stated that Mr Sharif was employed with Capital FZE as chairman of its board from Aug 7, 2006 to April 20, 2014.
When lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris asked if JIT members — Brigadier Kamran Khurshid of the Military Intelligence and Irfan Naeem Mangi of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) — had collected any bank transaction regarding transfer of salary to Mr Sharif, Mr Zia said: “No evidence pertaining to any bank record which would show any amount of Capital FZE transferred to the account of Nawaz Sharif was collected by the JIT.”
In response to another question, the star witness said: “The JIT did not collect any receipt signed or executed for on behalf of Nawaz Sharif acknowledging acceptance of any salary from the Capital FZE.”
But he insisted that since JAFZA’s record was available, the JIT formed its opinion regarding employment and disbursement of salary to the former prime minister.
Mr Zia admitted that except for the ‘screenshot’ of the employment certificate that the JIT obtained from JAFZA, it had no other record that might prove that the salary was either transferred to the account of Mr Sharif or he had signed any receipts for the cash amount through OTC.
It is worth mentioning that a five-judge Supreme Court bench had on July 28 last year disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for receiving salary from the Capital FZE.
On the other hand, Mr Sharif had been contending that he never received any salary and, therefore, it was not necessary for him to declare that income in the nomination forms.
Mr Zia testified that the screenshot employment certificate had a stamp on it which had no mention that the document was certified.
At this, Mr Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris pointed out that the document had a stamp, and not a seal. He informed the accountability court that the JIT did not write any application of mutual legal assistance (MLA) for getting documents pertaining to Capital FZE, rather got a ‘source’ document through law firm Guernica 37 International Chambers. After this a source document dated June 17, 2017 came under discussion, he said, arguing that a source document was not reliable unless corroborated.
Mr Zia said the JIT had hired Guernica 37 International Chambers that provided the investigation team with maximum source documents.
Mr Haris said some source documents didn’t have any stamp of the law firm.
Before the closing of Thursday’s proceedings, the JIT head moved an application stating that the privileged communication between the investigation team and Quist Solicitor — a law firm of Mr Zia’s first cousin hired for forensic analysis of documents — may be kept confidential.
The accountability court reserved its order on the application and adjourned the proceedings to Friday (today).
Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2018
Comments (26) Closed
Every day, I read report about accountability court proceedings in Dawn and Wajid Zia contradicts one thing or another with his earlier statement. Based on the events unfolding, it looks like Nawaz will go scot-free once again.
This is a game changer. Can this undo the July 2017 judgement since the judgement stood on shaky grounds? Don't think there's any provision in law to undo the decision of supreme court. It appears the only option left would be commuting of sentence by the President to resolve this extreme conspiracy against Pakistan.
It appears that soon JIT will be tried for treason.
So, a Prime Minister, democratically elected by millions of people was removed on the basis of a hoax claim of corruption.
We have image of politicians being corrupt and goons. On the other hand, if we are neutral, even for a moment, reading these statements from a Mr. Wajid Zia, it seems all baseless. Mr Zia is turning out to be more fraudulent than the case itself.
Brilliant forensics... JIT should get a TV show named after them or maybe even a movie. But wait, the BUMBLING IDIOTS has already been screened. Alas.
It seems all the case against Mr. Sharif is falling and not sure what Supreme Court has to say on this development where they have given decision but seems there are no evidence.
For heaven's sake. The document is indeed credible, had it lacked any credibility it must have been thrown out of the window by supreme court. Because legally when it was under Sharif's name, technically it's his salary being given over the counter. Thus, the produced document is suffice to prove the already established claim.
This report is misleading. PM was not disqualified because he has received salaries but because he was eligible to receive salary but he did not declare it. That's where they derived accounting definition of receivables being considered as assets and hence the need to declare them. You can argue that a sitting cannot be disqualified on a mere technicality but that's a separate discussion.
NS should explain the money trail and that’s it, what is the relevance of these arguments which we see everyday on media ?
@Dr. Doctor How can this be a game changer when Nawaz Sharif himself says that he didn't commit no sin by taking salary from his son. Nawaz has admitted he has taken salary from his son!
@Dr. Doctor Not at all. Read the judgement again. Nawaz was disqualified for not declaring salary that was due, not the fact that he received it and didn't declare. Slight difference, same impact. Also note that Nawaz lawyer is not consenting the fact that Nawaz was employed by FZE
I guess that had to make a last effort to come confuse people into thinking NS is innocent
Question on the table is what funds were used to buy those expensive apartments in 1990’s by sons and daughter of Nawaz, when those kids were minor. If Nawaz family had satisfactory answer he will go Scot free.
All the evidence and prove of corrupt practices against Nawaz Sharif and his family have been presented to SC and accountability courts along with forged documents presented by them in their defence. And yet, the case is dragging on for over a year and there is no conviction or decision - this is creating confusion and suspicion in people's minds, as they want to see culprits behind in bars or acquitted.
I humbly request our respectable courts to speed up the case, and decide the fate of corrupt mafia family - enough is enough, as nation want to see the end result within the law (one way or another) without any more topi dramas!
This is all part of a written script by PML-N.
The case is under NAB law in which the onus is on the person who owns the property to declare his sources in line with his income. Sharif family has already accepted the ownership of the apartments so the burden of proof is on them and not on JIT. How come our journalist twisting the facts by portraying sensationalism through cross examination of JIT head rather than asking the Sharif family to tell the sources.
People reading this article should now go back to Tahir up Qadri Sahab.. he said before all this that Nawaz will get clean chit from court in the end and this is exactly what is happening by the looks of it.
@Framing Just for your information supreme court is not a trial court and has no right to validate any document. If that was the case then supreme court would have sent IK in prision for submitting fake bani gala documents.
Read the Supreme Court decision again. Nawaz was disqualified for not declaring salary that was due, not salary that was received. In any case they have already appealed SC decision on this ground and lost. And there is nothing new here that was not already in JIT report. I also don't see how this is helping nawaz. In an assets beyond means case (which this is), the onus is on sharif family to provide money trail once ownership and pocession of flats/business is established (which in this case has been admitted by sharifs themselves). It's that simple
The truth is that the same was said before Supreme Court however as per definition of "salary receivable" in black law dictionary it was an asset that Nawaz Shareef did not declare and hence disqualified. So what contradiction is there?
Every newspaper, every television channel is reporting the proceeding in a different way.
Start going through the reports and one finds that there is no coherence in any of the reports presented online or being aired on television.
People, don’t you see that Wajid Zia has given in to the mafia because he and his family have to live in Pakistan - remember the threat by Nihall Hashmi of PML-N? Why should Wajid Zia sacrifice his life and his family?
The confusion persists. Probably it was meant to? Any thing gained for the people of the country or lost either?
@SHAHID SATTAR - clear your confused comments please!!!
The whole world knows Nawaz is corrupt so just charge him and put him in jail then taken all his money off him.
there is no name as per zia statement