Sharif's counsel continues concluding arguments in Avenfield case

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris continued his concluding arguments in Avenfield reference against Sharifs for third day on Thursday morning.

Judge Muhammad Bashir is presiding over the trial proceedings in Islamabad.

Khawaja Haris resuming his arguments contended that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was an investigation agency. Some rules use to be set for an investigation, which decide what is an acceptable evidence and what is not. The matter would have been handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), if a routine case, which would have been filed after the investigation.

The court had formed the JIT with investigation powers and handed over it the powers of the NAB and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the counsel argued. According to the court orders, the JIT was an investigating agency, he reiterated.

Advocate Haris earlier, on Wednesday argued that the prosecution is obliged to prove its case beyond any doubt after which the burden of proof is put on the accused persons, but it didn’t follow the rule in the case at hand.

He reiterated that the former PM doesn’t own the flats in posh London neighborhood. If the apartments not proved to be owned by his client, how come the NAB found anomalies in his assets and income, he asked.

Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz didn’t appear in the court as they have been granted exemption from personal appearance for four days.

The former premier along with his daughter has been in London due to the critical condition of his wife Kulsoom Nawaz who has been on life-support machines in an intensive care unit of a London hospital after she suffered a heart attack a few days back.