ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that he was watching the controversy surrounding the no-objection certificate submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan in the Supreme Court about his Bani Gala residence and he will make a statement after a complete appraisal.
After appearing in a NAB court in corruption references, the former premier while talking to the media said that they were reviewing the situation and will make a statement after reaching a conclusion on the issue.
Sharif said that he will not hurl allegations against anyone, like Imran Khan, without giving a second thought.
“I am not Imran Khan who starts talking to the media merely whispers. I have heard that the PTI chief has submitted a fake NOC regarding his Banigala residence in the Supreme Court. I am trying to understand the real matter, consult lawyers and party activists in this connection and on then they will issue a statement after consultations,” he said.
He said that there was a difference between him and Khan and he could not level baseless accusations on the basis of rumours. He said that they were waiting for the hearing of Supreme Court and they will see what the apex court takes a decision in this regard.
Earlier, five prosecution witnesses recorded statements to trial judge Muhammad Bashir in the two supplementary references in Al Azizia and Flagship Investment cases.
The courtroom witnessed a hot debate between counsels of both the sides. Khawaja Haris, the counsel for Sharif, strongly objected to the attitude of National Accountability Bureau prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi for his frequent interruptions during the cross-examination.
At one time, during the cross-examination of a prosecution witness, Naveed-ur-Rehman, a special security guard at Pakistan’s high commission in London, Haris called Abbasi a ‘Dheeth’ (stubborn) to which the later left the courtroom in protest. As a result, the court stopped the proceedings for 15 minutes break.
Nawaz’s counsel objected that why Abbasi was interrupting him during his questions to the witness. Later, Abbasi returned to the court and demanded an apology or allowed to use the same word against Haris. However, Haris said sorry and then both shook hands.
Another thing which remained the bone of contention between the defense and prosecution was how to record the testimony of the main witness Wajid Zia who headed the joint investigation team formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe the Panama issue.
Haris was insisting that since Zia has to base his testimony on the same JIT report and attached documents, so he should once record his statement in all the three references and later the defence would cross-examine him in this matter.
On the other hand, the prosecution side was of the view that Zia would record his statement separately in all the three references pending against the Sharif family. The two sides will further argue over the matter on Friday as Zia has been summoned by the AC to record his statement in Avenfield apartments corruption references where former the prime minister along with his two sons, daughter and son-in-law were the accused.
In the meantime, the special security guard at Pakistan High Commission London told the court about the delivery of certain documents and said that he did not know Muhammad Kamran, the investigation officer of the case.
Another official of the high commission, Muhammad Zakiuddin also recorded his statement about the delivery of documents.
Three other bank officials Irfan Mehmood, Muhammad Ali Raza, and Azhar Ikram also recorded their statements in connection with the Flagship and Al-Azizia corruption references.
The officials provided documents regarding transactions from Al-Azizia to different persons. However, they said that they neither prepared nor supervised and neither signed these documents.
