Accountability court reserves judgment on supplementary references filed against Sharif family

An accountability court, on Thursday, reserved judgement on two supplementary references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Sharif family.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retd) Safdar were summoned for hearing of the references about Flagship Investments, Al Azizia Steel Mill and Hill Metal Establishment.
Defence counsel Ayesha Hamid argued that NAB can only file supplementary references when new assets are found, asking whether “any new asset had surfaced”.
Hamid said that NAB obtained some documents from open sources but did not actually produce any documents through investigation. She added that neither any new statement nor assets had surfaced in the supplementary references.
Hamid further argued that if the court accepts the supplementary references then the six-month deadline should be extended and the Supreme Court (SC) should be requested to grant more time for hearing the references.
NAB’s prosecutor argued that no extra time would be consumed as the bureau would produce three prosecution witnesses in the next hearing, and 17 more in the hearings after that.
Hamid responded that the defence team can’t cross-examine all 17 witnesses at once as they have to prepare before cross-examining a witness. “Besides, we are not NAB,” she quipped.
Following the arguments, the court reserved the verdict which is expected to be announced soon.
Meanwhile, the court granted exemption to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz for the hearing scheduled today afternoon when statements of two foreign witnesses will be recorded in the Avenfield Apartments supplementary reference.