An accountability court on Friday indicted the ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in a reference related to Flagship Investments and other offshore companies.
The court charged Sharif in absentia for holding assets beyond his known sources of income and read out a charge-sheet to his pleader, Zafir Khan. Khan pleaded not guilty on behalf of Sharif, who is currently in London tending to his ailing wife.
According to the charge-sheet, Sharif told the joint investigation team that he was a shareholder in 16 companies, including:
The court was told that his sons, Hassan and Hussain were his dependents in 1989 and 1990. However, Sharif, submitted a record of assets for Hassan from 1990-1995, the charge-sheet read.
The charge-sheet observed that Sharif had held important positions in public office, including those of chief minister and prime minister.
On Thursday, accountability court Judge Mohammad Bashir indicted Sharif in the Avenfield Properties and Al-Azizia Company references through his pleader, while charges against Maryam Nawaz Sharif and her husband, retired Captain Muhammad Safdar were framed in the Avenfield reference in their presence.
The Sharif family pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that they were denied the fundamental right to a fair trial.
As per Sharif’s pleader, the Supreme Court’s judgement of July 28th in the Panama Papers case was “unprecedented” and denied him his “fundamental rights which the Constitution guaranteed for every citizen for being treated in accordance with law”.
According to the former prime minister, the apex court’s directions to conclude the trial within six months and the appointment of a monitoring judge to supervise the trial was against constitutional provisions that ensured the dignity of citizens and the right to fair and transparent proceedings.
The pleader read out Sharif’s statement after the accountability judge read out charges against him in the Avenfield Properties reference.
