Court May Share 75 Questions With Nawaz Sharif To Record Statement In Flagship Reference

The Accountability Court (AC) of Islamabad Tuesday hinted to prepare a questionnaire comprising around 75 questions for accused former minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to record his statement in the Flagship Investment corruption reference.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Nov, 2018 ) :The Accountability Court (AC) of Islamabad Tuesday hinted to prepare a questionnaire comprising around 75 questions for accused former minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to record his statement in the Flagship Investment corruption reference.

AC Judge Arshad Malik, who heard the case, observed that the court wanted to conclude the references within the deadline given by the apex court. Nawaz Sharif attended the proceedings.

As the hearing began, Nawaz's counsel Khawaja Haris requested the court to record his client's answers to four questions related to the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference on Thursday.

At this, the judge remarked that the court would enlist around 70-75 questions for the accused to record his statement in the Flagship Investment reference so that the two sides could initiate arguments early.

Later, Muhammad Kamran, National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Investigation Officer in the Flagship Investment reference, told the court that he had an in-depth analysis of all the record before initiating investigation against the former prime minister.

During the cross-examination by the defence counsel, Kamran said he had collected the report of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and other documents for probing the matter.

He said he had written letters on same day to the Federal board of Revenue (FBR) seeking tax record of the accused and to the Chaudhry Sugar Mills to find its record.

He said he did not know the source of the tax record of Nawaz Sharif from 1985 to 1999 and 2009 to 2016, which was part of the JIT report. No JIT member was investigated for the purpose, he added.

Kamran said he came to know during the investigation that the JIT had not received the record related to the Capital FZE Company in response of its mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests, which were written to the United Arab Emirates authorities by Shehab Sultan.

The case was adjourned till Thursday.