ISLAMABAD: The prosecution concluded final arguments in the Al-Azizia/Hill Metal Establishment (HME) reference on Monday and the counsel for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will start his arguments on Tuesday (today).

The defence counsel submitted Mr Sharif’s written statement as the court exempted him from personal appearance on Monday.

Concluding his arguments, National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) special prosecutor Wasiq Malik said Mr Sharif had received millions of rupees from the accounts of his son and the HME and this fact was “admitted and un-rebutted”.

He told the court that Mr Sharif claimed that he had received 88 per cent profit of the HME in the form of gifts, but he never produced any evidence to support this stance.

NAB prosecution concludes final arguments in Al-Azizia reference; defence to start arguments today

Another special prosecutor, Imran Shafique, argued before the court that whenever companies gifted anything to anyone it was documented in their record. But in this case no record showed that the transactions were gifts, he added.

He said that the defence took the plea that Mr Sharif’s sons, Hussain and Hassan Nawaz, were dependent upon their grandfather, but it never produced any evidence to substantiate the claim.

Moreover, Mr Shafiq said, it was unusual that all transactions for setting up a business in Saudi Arabia were made through verbal agreements and not via formal banking channel. It was an unusual practice, he added.

He said that Hussain and Hassan Nawaz admitted ownership of companies in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia and, therefore, they were supposed to produce details of shareholders and directors of these companies before the court.

Responding to a question of the accountability judge about the worth of the letter of Qatari Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani since he did not appear before the investigation team, Mr Shafiq said the UAE government had responded to the request for recording the Qatari prince’s testimony and sought the mutual legal assistance regarding the sale proceed of Gulf Steel Mills. The investigation team, therefore, dropped recording of the Qatari prince’s testimony since his letter had become irrelevant, he added.

Mr Shafiq said the Qatari prince did not appear before the Supreme Court, the joint investigation team or the NAB’s investigation team, adding that since he was a defence witness, the defence counsel should produce him before the accountability court. “He may be testified through video link or the court may constitute a commission to record his testimony,” he added.

The judge remarked that it had become a tradition in the country that all people involved in a case — the complainant, the lawyer and the accused — lied before the court and they expected the judge to announce an honest and fair judgement.

When the prosecutor was informing the court about the transactions of the HME to other companies, the judge asked him to focus only on Al-Azizia and HME.

The prosecutor then said that the accused had concealed the facts from investigators and not shared crucial details about the HME with the investigation team.

Judge Arshad Malik remarked that the evidence was enormous and asked the prosecutor to identify documents which were not produced before investigators.

The prosecutor said that the accused could have produced incorporation certificates of the companies, bank records and memorandum of article to the investigation team which would enable the investigators to ascertain the real owners.

The prosecutor told the court that Hussain and Hassan Nawaz did not join NAB’s investigation and both had been declared absconders.

According to the prosecutor, Mr Sharif had said he did not know about the business details of his sons. He said that following his exile, Mr Sharif was a royal guest in Saudi Arabia and within four months he had established Al-Azizia Steel Mills.

The court asked the defence counsel to start arguments on Tuesday (today) and adjourned the proceedings.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018