Panamagate probe: Shehbaz testifies for over 3 hours

Testifies before the JIT for three and a half hours

ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that his and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s appearances before the Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT) show that they have trust in the rule of law.

The younger Sharif spent more than three and a half hours testifying before the JIT, according to him, as someone acquainted with facts of Panamagate case.

Shehbaz arrived well on time at the Federal Judicial Academy, the JIT’s temporary secretariat, amid heightened security arrangements, matching those done at the time of the prime minister’s appearance before the probe team on June 15.

Interestingly, Shehbaz’s testimony matched facts earlier stated by his family members about their businesses. He asserted that their business was destroyed by various dictatorial regimes and that the nature of allegations and ‘conspiracy’ currently the Sharif family had been facing were not new. However, he did not accuse any state institution of destabilising democracy, as had been maintained by the elder Sharif.

He did not either mention anything about the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Instead, he took potshots at former president Pervez Mushrraf, accusing him of blatantly avoiding accountability.

He arrived at the FJA at 11am, and the only thing missing from his regular VVIP protocol was the convoy of security vehicles. All roads leading to the FJA had been closed to traffic. As many as 2,500 security personnel had been deployed and a dedicated route was provided between the Punjab House and FJA.



The Punjab chief minister was accompanied by federal ministers for finance and interior in addition to his son Hamza Shehbaz.

Shehbaz only answered two questions from media-persons present there. He got agitated when a reporter asked him about his family and its wealth, and left the venue without taking any other question.

“I have recorded my statement and answered all questions to the best of my knowledge,” he told the media-persons.

“It is a historic occasion … that an elected serving PM and CM [have] appeared before the JIT. We have served the cause of rule of law by appearing before the probe team,” he said.

According to Shehbaz, his family’s appearance also demonstrated contradictory behaviour of democratically-elected politicians and military dictators in terms of respecting the judiciary.

“I have been suffering from backbone problem for a long time, but I did not use it as an excuse. I did not take refuge in any hospital nor did I announce visiting my physician in London,” he said, in an apparent reference to Gen (retd) Pervez Mushrraf.



He said this was the fifth time the Sharif family was facing investigations.

“The Sharif family is not facing [such] investigations for the first time,” he said, while recalling January 2, 1972 when then government had nationalised his family’s business, Ittefaq Foundary.

He said the foundry had been set up by his father and six of his brothers in 1930s and that it was not obtained by virtue of any favour or an underhand deal.

He said in 1960, Ittefaq Foundary was among the largest iron producing and engineering factories in the region. Even during the wars of 1965 and 1971, the factory produced defence-related equipment, he claimed.

“I and Nawaz Sharif are proud of our father who was known for his honesty, and banks used to lend him loans without any issue,” he said.

Although Ittefaq Factory was destroyed by various regimes, the family repaid bank loans amounting to Rs5.75 billion in entirety in a bid to re-establish the business, he said.



“During the first tenure of late Benazir Bhutto [1988-90], we faced the second round of accountability. This time, the PPP again tried to destroy our business.”

In 1993-1996, Benazir Bhutto decided to roll back “our business. We faced losses worth billions of rupees. This time, my father was arrested,” he said.

“And then for a fourth time during the Murshrraf regime. I don’t want to tell this but when both of us, Nawaz and Shehbaz, were seated together in a plane with our hands chained … that was when I did not have the courage to gaze upon my brother’s face because of emotional intensity,” he recalled.

“This is the fifth time we are facing accountability … We are still open to it. There is no corruption charge or allegation of receiving kickbacks in mega projects against us. The case is all about our family business,” he said.

Lashing out at the PPP, Shehbaz said it was deeply involved in corruption during its tenure, minting billions of rupees.

Recounting scams which emerged during the previous tenure of the PPP, he said that they included NICL, rental power projects, Nandipur power project, Nelum Jhelum project. “The PPP incurred losses amounting to billions of rupees to the national exchequer in those projects,” he said.



“These are real corruption cases which destroyed Pakistan. Today, if children are out of school and if treatment is unavailable to poor patients... this is all because of these corruption cases,” he said.

At the end of his media talk, Shehbaz searched his coat pockets and found a paper and recited a couplet, implying that the Sharif family had even repaid those debts which were never their due.

When a reporter quipped that even children of the Sharif family were billionaires, he got infuriated and said: “Don’t distort facts. When Bhuttos and Musharraf destroyed our businesses, was not that plunder?”