Haris to continue cross-examination of Wajid Zia in Flagship reference today

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court will resume hearing of flagship reference against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday (today).

Accountability Judge, Muhammad Arshad Malik will hear the case, which is heading towards its conclusion, elder Sharif is expected to appear before the court in today’s hearing.

Nawaz’s counsel, Khawaja Haris will continue to cross examine the key prosecution witness and Panama JIT head Wajid Zia.

Flagship is one of the three references against the Sharif family for holding assets beyond their known sources of income.

During hearing of the reference yesterday, Wajid Zia admitted that the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority’s (Jafza) letter and employment contract were not prepared in his presence.

Zia, who headed the Panama Papers Joint Investigation Team (JIT), however, said the document he presented before the Supreme Court showed the former PM received salary from his son’s company.

Judge Arshad Malik asked if Sharif’s engagement with the company could be considered as an employment. Haris replied that accepting employment was a different matter.

Zia accepted that on the document, Nawaz Sharif’s name was written in a different manner. “With the screen shot we cannot [say] that the name is written wrong. If the screen is in front of you and you click on it, the whole name appears.”

Haris asked him if he was a computer expert. Zia replied that computer is a large field and he could not term himself an expert though he had passed a course in computing from Holland.

It may be recalled that on October 12, the top court extended the deadline to wrap-up corruption references (Flagship, Al-Azizia) against former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif till November 17.