Panamagate Joint Investigation Team head Wajid Zia disclosed before an accountability court on Thursday that the JIT was not unanimous in sending a questionnaire to the Qatari prince to verify the money trail of the Sharif family.
During cross-examination in the Avenfield properties reference against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members, Mr Zia admitted that though the JIT had written a letter to the implementation bench but this did not give a true picture to the bench that there was no consensus within the JIT about the questionnaire. Rather, he said, the Supreme Court had been requested to advise which option the investigation team should opt to verify contents of the letter of Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabber Al-Thani, which claimed that the Avenfield apartments had been handed over to the Sharif family as part of a settlement.
Defence counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed read out the contents of the Qatari prince’s letter written to the JIT and said that Mr Al-Thani was ready to testify but was asking for a questionnaire before his formal testimony.
Mr Zia said that in response to the letter he received a phone call from SC’s deputy registrar Mazhar Abbas who “conveyed the bench’s decision that it was an investigation matter and the JIT may decide on its own”.
