Rival parties scramble to gather documentary proof

PTI leader says legal team puts available material through the scanner

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its arch rival Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) have started collecting documents to establish their respective stances before the Supreme Court’s five-judge larger bench hearing petitions in connection with Panamagate scandal.

The Panama Papers in April revealed that the PM’s children were among dozens of powerful people who had stashed money in offshore companies. The apex court on Monday clearly stated that an inquiry into the Panama Papers’ revelations would begin from the premier’s family.



The SC’s larger bench — headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali — also asked for documentary evidence from the Sharif family to establish they had acquired properties abroad through legal means.

And in his reply, the PM’s son – Hussain Nawaz – admitted to owning properties abroad.



“Entities [properties] are being managed under a trust arrangement for the sole benefit of respondent No 7 [Hussain Nawaz], with respondent No 6 [Maryam Nawaz] being the trustee thereof. Other than the role of a trustee for and on behalf of respondent No 7, respondent No 6 [Hassan Nawaz] has no concern, relationship, ownership or control of the entities and/or the properties,” said his reply.

It said the source of funds resulting in vesting of beneficial ownership of the entities and, consequently, the properties of Hussain Nawaz, in January 2006, was the investment made in 1980 by the PM’s father – late Mian Muhammad Sharif – from the sale proceeds of his steel business in Dubai.

A senior PTI leader told The Express Tribune that the PTI’s legal team is continuously holding meetings and scrutinising the available material, which will be presented before the apex court on Monday. Dr Ikramul Haq, renowned tax lawyer, is also attending these consultations.

“We will establish that these properties have been purchased before 2006 and the respondents also transferred money through different [sources] for this purpose,” he said.

He said the PTI has also sought legal opinion from foreign lawyers if the legal status of the PM’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, under the British law as trustee makes her a beneficiary of the properties.

Hussain Nawaz, who has arrived in Pakistan, has submitted his written stance to a private TV channel, wherein he has contended that according to the British law a trustee is the legal owner under a trust.

“I have maintained throughout that Maryam Nawaz Sharif is not the beneficial owner of the Park Lane properties. I am the beneficial owner whereas she is the trustee under an executed trust deed”

One member of the PTI’s legal team said the London High Court’s 1999 decision in the Hudaibiya Papers Mills loans acquired through the Al-Towfeek Investment Fund is the most convincing and irrefutable documentary evidence proving the Sharif’s association with the London flats which the PM’s children claim to have purchased in 2006.



“The defendants are [the PM’s brother and Punjab Chief Minister] Shahbaz Sharif, Mian Mohammad Sharif [PM’s father] and Mian Mohammad Abbas Sharif [PM’s another brother],” he added. The PTI lawyer said they are also considering making CM Shahbaz a party in the case.

A leading lawyer of the PTI expressed fear that the ruling party might have fudged the required documents in Pakistan. However, he said, it would not be easy to fudge documents in foreign countries.

Senior lawyers belonging to the PML-N are not happy with the strategy of the PM’s legal team in Panama Papers case. They said the PM’s team should have aggressively presented their stance before the larger bench.

One of these lawyers said the matter regarding investigation of Panamagate issue should have been resolved in parliament before reaching the Supreme Court.

However, the PML-N’s legal team said all the required documents were available and would be presented before the bench on Monday.  The legal experts believe that Sharif family may establish that the money for the purchase of these flats was transferred through the accounts of Mian Sharif.

Sources in the PTI, however, admitted they did not have so far any conclusive documentary evidence which could knock out the PM’s team in this case.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2016.