ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday observed that the issue related to the alleged forged trust deed of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz was beyond the jurisdiction of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A division bench, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, resumed hearing on appeals filed by Ms Nawaz and her spouse retired Captain Mohammad Safdar against their conviction in the Avenfield Apartments reference.

Defence counsel Amjad Pervaiz told the court that NAB had initially described Ms Nawaz as a beneficial owner of the Avenfield Apartments.

However, in the supplementary reference the bureau claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was the actual owner of the property.

According to him, NAB had drawn inference that Ms Nawaz was the beneficial owner of the property which the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) claimed was purchased around 1993-1996 because of the trust deed executed in February 2006.

In response to the query of Justice Kayani for preparation of the trust deed, Advocate Pervaiz explained that the deed was executed since Hussain Nawaz had two wives and being the elder sister Ms Nawaz would take care of the property in case of any eventuality.

The counsel said NAB accused Ms Nawaz of making a forged trust deed to mislead the investigation.

He, however, argued that NAB did not probe key witnesses Jeremy Freeman of Freeman Box, a solicitor that executed the trust deed, and Waqar Ahmed, who was also a signatory of the document.

Advocate Pervaiz said JIT head Wajid Zia had hired a firm of his cousin - M/s Quest - for collection of evidence and recording of testimony of the witnesses abroad.

The firm recorded the statement of a so-called expert, Robert Radely, to prove the document fake but did not contact Freeman who had confirmed genuineness of the trust deed.

He argued that Mr Radely recorded statement before the accountability court while reading notes provided to him by the prosecution.

According to the counsel, during the cross-examination Mr Radely had confirmed that he was not a computer geek and also admitted that the Calibri font existed much before the trust deed was prepared.

It may be mentioned that the JIT had declared the trust deed fake since forensic expert Radely in his report pointed out that the Calibri font in which the trust deed was prepared was not commercially available in February 2006.

The defence counsel while quoting the statement of Mr Radely argued that the expert had admitted that the font was available in early 2005.

The bench wondered as to why the JIT engaged the UK-based expert since such experts were available in Pakistan.

The counsel replied that JIT feared that the local prosecutor would be prosecuted if the report was proved to be bogus.

Advocate Pervaiz said the accountability court deleted the charge of presenting forged trust deed against Ms Nawaz and pended the matter till the decision on her appeal.

Justice Kayani observed that “this matter then cannot come under the ambit of NAB.”

Advocate Pervaiz claimed that the accountability court had framed jumbled charges against Ms Nawaz and culminated this in the judgment.

Justice Farooq inquired from the counsel “how did Maryam Nawaz mislead the investigation?”

The counsel replied that when the prosecution agency in a supplementary reference accused Nawaz Sharif of being the actual owner, she could not be convicted for being the beneficial owner.

Justice Kayani observed that in such a scenario “prima facie, she is not the accused.”

Further hearing was adjourned till June 23.

Maryam Nawaz’s media talk

After the court proceeding, Ms Nawaz while talking to the media accused Imran Khan of the skyrocketing inflation and consecutive increases in prices of petroleum products.

She said the massive hike in petroleum prices was a result of the agreement between the International Monitory Fund (IMF) and the previous PTI regime.

She said PM Shehbaz Sharif was bound to comply with the agreement which had brought the storm of inflation.

The PML-N leader claimed that the PTI government had agreed with the global lender to abolish subsidy on petroleum products and impose sales tax and a petroleum development levy.

She said due to the landmines laid by the PTI government, the fuel prices in Pakistan should be around Rs300 per litre, adding the incumbent government had to honour the pact with the global lender or else the country would default.

She said Imran Khan subsidised petrol and diesel when he realised that he was about to lose his seat.

She also defended the statement of the director general of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on the so-called US-conspiracy and said the pertinent point shouldn’t be whether it was a conspiracy or interference but the denial by the ISPR chief.

Responding to Imran Khan’s statement that the DG ISPR did not need to speak about political matters, the PML-N leader said it was Imran Khan who took the matter to the National Security Council (NSC), adding the army cannot lie to ‘please’ Imran Khan.

She also defended a tweet by Nawaz Sharif related to the return of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf and said Mr Sharif did this on humanitarian grounds.

Published in Dawn,June 17th, 2022