A Pakistani anti-graft court on Wednesday formally began trial of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members in corruption cases linked to the Panama Papers scandal as two prosecution witnesses recorded their statements against them.
As the trial began, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecution presented its first two witnesses in the court — Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Joint Registrar Sidra Mansoor and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Inland Revenue Department representative Jahangir Ahmad.
When Mr. Sharif’s lawyer, Khawaja Haris, was given the floor to cross-question the first witness, he observed that the audit reports submitted by the SECP to NAB were photocopies and did not have the company’s stamp on them.
Defending the authenticity of the documents, Ms. Mansoor said that the photocopies were provided to the SECP by the Sharifs’ company as per the law.
Revenue Bureau’s Jahangir Ahmad also recorded his witness statement and said that all tax records that NAB had provided to the court were given to the accountability body by his office. Mr. Ahmad has been called to appear in court again on November 22 for cross-questioning in the next hearing.
Conditional acceptance
While the accountability court accepted Mr. Sharif’s application for exemption from court hearings till November 27, it only conditionally allowed his daughter Maryam one month’s exemption from court.
Both Mr. Sharif, 67, and Ms. Maryam filed separate applications for exemption from future court hearings.
Mr. Sharif, in his application, had asked to be exempted from trial hearings as the next spell of his wife’s chemotherapy is about to begin.
Ms. Maryam had said that she would present herself in court whenever there is a hearing. However, she requested the court allow Jahangir Jadoon to represent her in court in case she had to leave the country in case of an emergency. The NAB prosecutors had objected to both applications.
Talking to media later, Mr. Sharif claimed that the Panamagate verdict was given to tell the accountability court to make sure he is punished.
He added that the language used in the Panamagate verdict mirrors the language that his political opponents use.