ISLAMABAD – Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir Monday said hewould write a letter to the Supreme Court seeking another extension in thedeadline to conclude the ongoing references against Sharif family, raisingthe doubts that Sharif family is unlikely to be punished in the ongoingcases any time soon.
An earlier revised deadline set by the apex court to wrap up the corruptionreferences against the Sharif family and former finance minister Ishaq Daris going to expire on June 9.
The Supreme Court, in its order passed on July 28, 2017, in Panama Paperscase, had instructed the accountability court to wrap up the referenceswithin six months.
Following the Supreme Court directives, the National Accountability Bureau(NAB) had filed four references in September 2017 against the Sharifs. Thefirst extension of two months was given by the apex court, which expired inMay 2018.
After the expiry of the two months deadline, the apex court granted anothermonth to the accountability court last month on its request for concludingthe pending references.
The latest revised deadline is also going to expire in a few days, but thecourt has so far only finished recording testimonies of former primeminister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and his son-in-law Capt(r) Muhammad Safdar, all in the Avenfield property references.
These testimonies consumed about nine days of court proceedings and theformer premier is still to appear in at least another round to record hisstatement in Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references.
The court is currently recording the testimony of Wajid Zia, the starprosecution witness in Al-Azizia reference. He was also the head of thejoint investigation team (JIT) that probed the Panama Papers case.
After him, the prosecution will produce their final witness in Al-Aziziareference — an investigation officer of the NAB.
At some point, Zia and the NAB officer in question will also have totestify in the Flagship reference, while the recording of the finalarguments in all the three references is also on the agenda.
Meanwhile, the accountability court Monday adjourned the cross-examinationof Zia in Al-Azizia reference against the Sharif family till June 11.
The accountability court judge, while adjourning the cross-examination,directed the prosecution to submit final arguments in the London flats caseby tomorrow.
During the hearing, Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Harris who was cross-examiningZia requested the judge to hear arguments in all three references at once.“Sixty percent of the arguments are the same in the three references. Wewill file a petition tomorrow against your written order to announce acombined judgment,” Harris said.
However, the NAB deputy prosecutor remarked, “We will conduct separateexaminations on all the three references. The accused did not produceanything in his defence in the Avenfield reference,” he said.
Sharif and his family members are facing three corruption references in theaccountability court — Avenfield properties, Al-Azizia Steel Mills andFlagship Investments — in which they are accused of money-laundering, taxevasion and hiding of offshore assets.