ISLAMABAD: Wajid Zia — the bureaucrat who was appointed by
the Supreme Court as head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT)
investigating money laundering allegations against the Sharif family —
has owned before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) the contents
of the probe report that cost former prime minister Nawaz Sharif his
job, sources say.
“I own and endorse the contents of the
report which has been submitted to the Honourable Supreme Court and any
certified copy of the report issued by the registrar, Supreme Court, to
the NAB investigators,” Mr Zia said in his statement.
It
is believed that Mr Zia is the main prosecution witness in all the
three references filed by NAB in an accountability court on the top
court’s instructions. The references pertain to the Avenfield properties
of London, the Flagship Investment Company and the Al-Azizia Mills.
The
sources say that Mr Zia appeared before an investigation team of NAB in
the last week of August and testified that he and other members of the
JIT had procured key evidence against Mr Sharif and his family members,
and handed over these documents to the apex court’s registrar during
hearings of the Panama Papers case.
According to the
sources, he told the NAB team that among the key pieces of evidence
procured against the former premier were the mutual legal assistance
responses from governments of the British Virgin Islands and United Arab
Emirates that were linked to the money trail of London’s Avenfield
properties.
He said the documents relating to the Jable
Ali Free Zone Authority that provided some details of Mr Sharif’s job in
his son’s company was among the record the JIT had provided to the
Supreme Court. The top court had disqualified Mr Sharif as a
parliamentarian for not declaring an un-withdrawn salary from that
company.
Mr Zia also told the bureau’s team that the JIT
submitted the forensic report to the court which claimed that a trust
deed filed by Maryam Nawaz had been forged.
The sources
quoted him as saying that the JIT had provided the entire record of the
case to the top court, including bank documents, income tax and wealth
tax records and details of different companies owned by the Sharif
family, in 21 cartons.
He said the JIT also provided the
income tax and wealth statements of former finance minister Ishaq Dar
to the registrar of the apex court.
