Accountability court reserves verdict in Avenfield reference, will announce decision on July 6
Malik AsadJuly 03, 2018
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The accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday reserved verdict in Avenfield reference filed against the Sharif family, saying it will announce the decision on July 6.
The verdict was reserved after defence counsel Amjad Pervaiz concluded his arguments in the case.
The Avenfield reference is among the four corruption references filed against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his three children and former finance minister Ishaq Dar in compliance with the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case.
Final arguments
Earlier, during the course of final arguments in the Avenfield reference, the counsel for Maryam Nawaz and the Sharif family claimed that forensic expert Robert William Radley was not an expert of fonts.
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He claimed that Radley lacked expertise in fonts identification, adding that he did not have the qualification with regard to identification of fonts.
The defence counsel argued that the case of the prosecution was that Calibri font was not commercially available when it was used in a document by Maryam. But, he added, the availability of the font was not disputed. He wondered why the services of a foreign expert were hired when such facilities were available in Pakistan.
He reiterated that the services of Radley were hired neither directly nor through the Foreign Office.
The counsel said two witnesses — JIT head Zia and his cousin Akhtar Riaz Raja of Quist Solicitor — had admitted before the court that Radley’s services could be hired directly or through the Foreign Office.
Avenfield properties
According to the JIT report submitted in the Panamagate case, the Sharifs had given contradictory statements about their London flats and found that the flats actually belonged to them since 1993.
The report said Hassan Nawaz had contradicted the statement of his brother Hussain Nawaz about the Avenfield apartments, who had earlier stated that only apartment No 17 was in his possession in 1994.
Contrarily, Hassan confirmed that three Avenfield apartments (No 16, 16A and 17) were already in possession of Hussain when he had arrived in London in 1994, while they got the possession of the fourth apartment (17A) in the next six months.
The JIT observed that either one or both brothers had lied to hide some facts and hence they could not be given the benefit of doubt. It said Nawaz Sharif had distanced himself from the apartments and could not explain the time frame and procedure adopted for obtaining the possession of Avenfield apartments by his sons, and was even uncertain about which son claimed the ownership of the flats now. But he told the JIT that he usually stayed in apartment No 16 (Avenfield) whenever he visited London
