Evidence in Al-Azizia case not certified, court told

ISLAMABAD: The last prosecution witness against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has testified before an accountability court that the documents produced by the National Accoun­tability Bureau (NAB) as evidence in the Al-Azizia reference were neither certified nor properly attested.

During cross-examination, the lead defence counsel for Mr Sharif, Khawaja Haris, asked NAB investigation officer in the Al-Azizia reference Mehboob Alam how the copies of the references and several other documents related to the case were obtained.

The officer said he had obtained the copies from the Supreme Court.

Asked whether these documents were certified or attested by the Supreme Court, the witness replied in the negative.

The witness testified before accountability Judge Malik that he had to file the reference within six weeks since the apex court had in its July 28, 2017 judgement given a six-week deadline to the bureau for filing three references against Mr Sharif and one against former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

Subsequently, the NAB executive board approved the filing of these references to the accountability court of Islamabad, he added.

According to Mr Alam, he had no option but to file the reference since “both the directions [apex court and NAB executive board] were binding upon me and I had no option but to file the reference within six weeks”.

Following the cross-examination, the hearing was adjourned till Friday.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018