German daily uploads more docs on Maryam link

Süddeutsche Zeitung, reportedly the first recipient of the documents leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca

A German publication has uploaded more documents linking Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz to the offshore company which owns Park Lane flats in London.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung, reportedly the first recipient of the documents leaked from a Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, tweeted more documents following a release on Monday in which the paper reaffirmed Maryam’s involvement in Minerva Financial Services, an offshore firm.

Minerva is the holding company for Nescol and Nielson Enterprises, two offshore firms at the centre of the scandal engulfing the prime minister’s family.

Some of the email correspondence is already a part of a petition filed by the PTI in the Supreme Court over involvement of the Sharif family in alleged corruption. The SC’s five-judge larger bench is currently hearing a slew of petitions seeking the PM’s disqualification in the wake of Panama Papers.

“As there are still discussions about Mariam Safdar’s role in Nielsen Enterprises, see another document [from] Panama Papers naming her as beneficial owner,” the newspaper said in a tweet.

The German publication also released documents which show loans granted by Deutsche Bank to the two offshore companies allegedly owned by the premier’s daughter. However, Maryam has denied allegations of her involvement in the offshore wealth.

On Tuesday, she disowned a signature – purported to be hers – on a document supposed to be filled by “all individuals including proposed beneficial owners, shareholders, directors, secretaries, settlers, protectors, beneficiaries [and] authorised signatories.”

During Panamagate hearings at the Supreme Court, the PTI has been trying to establish that Maryam Nawaz, and not her brother Hussain Nawaz as claimed by the party earlier, is the beneficial owner of the Minerva Financial Services.

Though the documents posted by Süddeutsche Zeitung have already been submitted to the Supreme Court by the PTI, the German daily’s tweet put more pressure on the Sharif family to come clean on the issue.

The opposition has repeatedly attacked PM Nawaz after the Panama Papers leaks showed his three children owned offshore assets worth millions of dollars. The premier is also under pressure to disclose the source of fund used to acquire these assets.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2017.