ISLAMABAD: As the main prosecution witness, Wajid Zia, continued getting his testimony recorded on Tuesday, defence counsel Khawaja Haris pointed out anomalies in the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) with respect to the Capital FZE — a company owned by a son of Nawaz Sharif.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sacked for not declaring salary that he was supposed to receive from the Capital FZE.

Mr Zia submitted documents relating to the registration of the company with the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza).

Advocate Haris objected that the six-member JIT that investigated the Panama Papers case did not attach the documents to the report submitted to the Supreme Court in July last year.

Mr Zia initially said that “there were multiple documents relating to Jafza which either were copies or related to the same subject attached in the JIT report”.

But when Mr Haris asked him to name the documents, Mr Zia conceded that only three documents were ann­exed with the JIT report. When he provided some add­i­tional information, Mr Haris started asking questions.

When Judge Mohammad Arshad Malik reminded him that he had to conclude the proceedings in both the references within the stipulated time frame, Mr Haris said that since the court had allowed the witness to add additional information to the voluntary portion, it was his right to ask additional questions.

Before the start of court’s proceedings, Nawaz Sharif avoided journalists’ questions and said PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb would answer these questions. The temperature in the courtroom was rather high because one of the two air-conditioners was off and over a dozen PML-N leaders were in the courtroom to accompany Mr Sharif.

The judge pointed out that Mr Sharif was not in prison now and these political figures could meet him at some other place.

The court adjourned the proceedings till Wednes­day.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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