ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday filed an application before the Supreme Court, seeking permission to record the statements of the members of the Panama Papers case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) headed by Wajid Zia.

According to sources, the application was submitted to Justice Ijazul Ahsan, the court’s monitoring judge for the implementation of its July 28 judgement in which NAB was asked to file references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and members of his family.

The bureau requested the court to grant it the permission to record the statements of the members of the six-man JIT, which it said was essential for the finalisation of the corruption references.

On Aug 17, NAB was granted access to Volume 10 of the report prepared by the JIT after its investigations against Mr Sharif.

Application to SC’s monitoring judge cites need for witnesses in references against Sharif family

While disqualifying Mr Sharif under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution, a five-judge Supreme Court bench had asked NAB to file four references before the Rawalpindi accountability court within six weeks on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the JIT as well as that already available with the bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency.

NAB has to file one reference against Mr Sharif, his children Maryam Safdar and Hussain and Hassan Nawaz and son-in-law retired Capt Muhammad Safdar about the ownership of four upscale Avenfield flats in London.

A reference against Mr Sharif and his sons regarding the Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment and one about 16 other companies have also been ordered. The companies include Flagship Investments, Hartstone Properties, Que Holdings, Quint Eaton Place 2, Quint Saloane, Quaint Ltd, Flagship Securities, Quint Gloucester Place, Quint Paddington, Flagship Developments, Alanna Services (the British Virgin Islands), Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron Inc, Ansbacher, Coomber and Capital Free Zone Establishment (Dubai).

The fourth reference has to be filed against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for possessing assets and funds disproportionate to his known sources of income.

To support whatever the JIT had come out with in its voluminous report, it was essential to record the statements of its members so that NAB might present them as prosecution witnesses in the proposed references, the application explained.

The application was filed a day after Mr Sharif and his sons failed to appear before NAB investigators assigned to prepare the references, reportedly because the ousted prime minister had sought a review of the judgement in the Panama Papers case.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2017