ISLAMABAD: The counsel for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Khawaja Haris, has objected to a meeting between the judges of the accountability court of Islamabad and a senior official of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying eyebrows were raised at such meetings.

The lead defence counsel, during the trial proceedings in the Al-Azizia reference on Friday, referred to media reports about Thursday’s meeting of accountability court judges Mohammad Bashir and Mohammad Arshad Malik with Director General of NAB Rawalpindi Irfan Naeem Mangi and said it would have been better to avoid the meeting, especially in the prevailing environment.

Judge Malik said he had summoned Mr Mangi on Wednesday, but due to his other engagements he could not find time to meet him and asked him to visit him again on Thursday.

“I asked him to come since there were some important issues that we need to discuss,” he said, adding that he wanted to discuss with Mr Mangi issues related to remand of some accused.

Judge Arshad Malik says he had called Irfan Naeem Mangi

It may be mentioned that the stance of the accountability judge was altogether different from what Mr Mangi said when he was asked about the purpose of his visit while leaving the chamber of Judge Malik or what a NAB spokesperson said about the visit.

According to the official stance of NAB on the visit, the bureau was in the process of shifting its offices and Thursday’s visit of its officials to the accountability court was in connection with getting information about furniture, store facilities and ACs.

Khawaja Haris also complained about the reported misbehaviour of senior prosecutor Mohammad Akram Qureshi with a woman lawyer. He said the remarks passed by the prosecutor were derogatory, adding that the prosecution needed to confine itself only to the extent of legal points as it did not suit prosecutors to pass political statements.

The defence counsel continued cross-examination of NAB investigation officer Mehboob Alam. He discussed forwarding the requests for mutual legal assistance (MLA) to t he UAE and Saudi Arabia governments.

During the cross-examination, the investigation officer admitted that except for Tariq Shafi, he did not record the statement of any of the parties of an agreement dated April 14, 1980 related to sale of 25 per cent shares of Ahli Steel Mills (ASM) (erstwhile Gulf Steel Mills or GSM).

The stance of the Sharif family members was that they had invested the money received from the sale of ASM’s 25pc shares with a Qatari royal and in return purchased London properties and started business in the UAE and the UK.

The prosecution, however, was of the view that the Sharif family cleared the loans they had obtained for GSM through sale of the said shares.

During the cross-examination, Mr Alam testified: “One of the parties to this agreement was Muhammad Abdullah Kayed Ahli. I had not associated him with the investigation.”

He further said that other parties to this agreement, including Abdul Wahab Ibrahim Galadari and Mohammad Akram, were not summoned for recording thier statements during the course of investigation. “I had not made any effort during my investigation to verify agreement from the consul general of Pakistan in the UAE,” he added.

The defence counsel would continue cross-examination of the investigation officer next week.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018