ISLAMABAD: Joint investigation team (JIT) head Wajid Zia on Friday informed an accountability court hearing Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif that he never wrote a letter to the Saudi government to verify the information provided by the Sharif family.
“Neither did I write a letter to the Saudi government to verify the information provided by Hussain Nawaz nor confirmed the registration number of the company that the former prime minister’s son had provided,” Zia told the court.
According to the NAB witness, a few documents provided by Hussain were in Arabic language. Nawaz Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Harris then inquired if Zia could understand the Arabic language. To this, Zia responded in affirmative, stating that he had spent some time in the Kingdom hence he was somewhat acquainted with the language.
During the hearing, Zia read mutual legal assistance documents from the sealed volume 10 obtained from the Supreme Court to answer the defence lawyer’s questions. The NAB witness apprised the court that according to the documents, the Hill Metal Establishment was associated with the steel industry. He further said that Nawaz’s son Hussain appeared before the joint investigation team (JIT) on June 3, after which he was included in the probe.
The JIT head admitted before the court that JIT did not know when the Hill Metal Establishment was setup and whether it was a company, partnership concern or a sole proprietorship. Zia said it was important to ascertain whether Hill Metal Establishment was a sole proprietorship or a partnership. He stated that this question was not specifically included in the mutual legal assistance documents.
Zia also admitted that he has never investigated a case involving any commercial transaction or relating to any company, partnership or sole proprietorship. He admitted his lack of knowledge about tax laws that were applicable in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and in Pakistan, saying he was not an expert on the subject. At one point, Zia admitted that he cannot answer the question as to whether in KSA there are different laws for fillings of annual returns by companies, partnership concerns and sole proprietorships, as he is not an expert on KSA annual returns/fillings. “I cannot say whether even in Pakistan laws and requirements for fillings of annual returns and tax returns are different for companies, partnership concerns and sole proprietorships,” he replied to a question by Khawaja Harris.
During cross-examination, Zia told the court he worked in the economic crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two years and was associated in supervisory capacity in the headquarters but did not investigate anything. “I did not directly deal with any commercial case in my supervisory capacity. My role in dealing indirectly with commercial cases was to ensure that the inquiry and the cases are completed within the stipulated time frame, to respond to any correspondence requiring assistance of the headquarters.”
Published in Daily Times, September 8th 2018.
