ISLAMABAD - An accountability court of Islamabad Thursday partially accepted the plea of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz to make the joint investigation team’s (JIT) report part of the Avenfield reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Sharif family.
Accountability Judge Mohammd Bashir accepted the plea after going through the arguments placed by the prosecution counsel while assuring the defence counsel not to include the JIT’s analysis in the record and ordered to record the statements of JIT’s witnesses.
Meanwhile, prosecution witness Wajid Zia, head of the JIT, recorded his testimony while submitting three boxes of the record along with the correspondence with Qatari royal family member Hamad bin Jassim and requested the court to make entire JIT report part of the proceedings.
Maryam Nawaz’s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz, however, pleaded that no law allowed to include suggestions or analysis of an investigation team as record of a case.
He said all volumes of the JIT report could not be considered as admissible evidence, and cited superior courts precedents. NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, however, stressed that JIT report was the main evidence of the prosecution.
The court then reserved the decision, which was announced after some time. According to the verdict, JIT’s analysis in the record would not be included as record in the case The case was adjourned till March 16. - APP