Nawaz Sharif reaches NAB Court for hearing of Flagship reference

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif reached Accountability Court on Thursday (today) to appear before it in ongoing trial of flagship reference against him, filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Judge, Arshad Malik will preside over the proceedings, while defence counsel Khawaja Haris will continue cross examination of Panama JIT head, Wajid Zia on the fourth consecutive day.

During hearing of the reference yesterday, Zia testified before the court that Gorneca International confirmed that the copies of the documents provided by Capital FZE are genuine. However, he did point out that Gorneca did not include any JIT member in the investigation.

“JIT did not request any information regarding Capital FZE nor requested the verified copies of its trading license,” said Zia, adding that the JIT has not taken information about the owner, directors, secretary and signing authority of Capital FZE.

The JIT head further added that the investigation team did not find any document that identify the date on which Capital FZE was set up. “It is true that while making the statements on Avenfield reference, I had sought help from various volunteers.”

Mr Zia said members of the JIT went to Jabel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) to obtain records pertaining to Capital FZE. “Upon their return from Dubai, the JIT members told that they had orally requested the Jafza officials to provide them the desired records.”

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.