Dar disowns confession in Hudaibya reference

Claims providing details of ‘every single penny’ during 45 minutes of testimony

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday disowned his confessional statement in the Hudaibya Paper Mills reference, saying: “Pakistani courts have already decided that it contains no evidentiary value”.

“It’s nothing but trash and a waste paper,” Dar said while talking to the media soon after he recorded his statement before the joint investigation team (JIT) tasked with probing the Sharif family’s offshore assets.

The ‘confessional statement’ Dar referred to was given before a magistrate way back on April 25, 2000. In his handwritten statement, the senator had alleged that Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as cover for money-laundering during the late 1990s.

A seemingly infuriated Dar, who spent almost 45 minutes with the probe team, verbally attacked PTI chairman Imran Khan’s personal life – in probably the worst such action so far from any senior cabinet member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

He consumed around 30 minutes to talk about ‘insignificance’ of three pending references against the Sharif family instituted during Musharraf’s regime in an ‘unholy haste’; triviality of his famous confessional statement; a JIT not following procedure set by the apex court during the ongoing investigation; and some below-the-belt and personal attacks on Imran Khan involving his alleged marriage with Sita White and donations made by Dar’s family for Khan’s cancer hospital.



He told the media that he answered all the questions posed by the members of the high-powered probe team. “I provide them with details of every single penny,” he said, adding, “It is not difficult for him as all business affairs of the Sharif family are totally transparent.”

Dar did not refuse to acknowledge his confessional statement in the Hudaibya Paper Mills case but said that it’s not his ‘hand-written’ and was ‘signed’ by him following a legal advice given to him at that time.

“Even the holy Quran says to eat or drink prohibited (haram) stuff if one’s life is in danger,” Dar said, adding he was advised by the legal team to sign whatever they were asking for.

He said some 13 judges at different times had rejected the confessional statement and given categorical decisions about its admissibility and added that a former prosecutor general wrote that it had no evidentiary value.

“Whoever producing it as substantial evidence is disgracing the judgment of the 13 judges,” he said, adding that nobody dared to even challenge that decision of the judges.

“I have valid proof where one of the senior members of the team [that managed to obtain that confessional statement] named an individual who did it just to please his superiors,” he said. “My so-called confessional statement is nothing but trash. It’s a waste paper and I have been saying it since the day one,” he added.

The finance minister said even former CJP Justice Jamali had refrained PTI counsel Naeem Bokhari in the Panamagate case to read out that statement which “shows its insignificance”.

In his confessional statement, Dar had admitted laundering $14.9 million to whiten Sharif’s money.

Dar alleged that the JIT probing the Sharif family’s offshore assets was not following the procedure set by the Supreme Court in the Arsalan Iftikhar case. “It seems laws are different for the son of a judge and the children of a sitting PM. It’s unfair.”

He said he felt bad when the JIT issued summons for PM’s daughter Maryam Nawaz. “It’s not about Maryam alone... I will also feel bad if the JIT summons the sisters of Imran Khan, who were directors of an offshore firm owned by Imran,” he said.



He requested the Supreme Court to take notice of the summons issued to Maryam Nawaz, saying the JIT should review its decision and rather sent a questionnaire to her as per the procedure laid out by the Supreme Court in the Arsalan Iftikhar case.

“The JIT is required to prove its credibility, as several questions have so far been raised about its impartiality,” he added.

The finance minister said there was no mention of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif anywhere in the Panama Papers nor did he own any offshore company. He said many named in the Panama Papers were part of different political parties and were the frontrunner in the whole campaign against the Sharif family.

“A drama has been going on for the last 23 years,” he said, adding that three references were instituted during Musharraf’s dictatorial regime under mala fide intention and through presumptive and forced confessions.

While citing a reference, Dar said: “The Ittefaq Foundries report was prepared on February 14, 2000 and on the same date the NAB scrutinised it and also completed the investigation under Section 18-G on the same date. Then on the same date the Lahore Accountability Court took cognisance of it and on the same date Abbas Sharif and others were produced in the case,” he said.

“It seems it was not a 24-hour day, rather a day spanning over 24 days. In legal language, unholy haste itself is a dangerous practice that destroys the fundamentals of justice,” he said, calling the Panamagate case a conspiracy against Nawaz Sharif and his government, hatched by opponent political parties.

The senator spent a significant portion of his media talk to criticise the PTI chairman. From questioning about his alleged ties with the ‘Jewish lobby’ to his secret marriage with Sita White and a daughter from that marriage, he said it all.

“You are a liar, illiterate, gambler, coward, and tax evader,” Dar said in one breath.

He said it was not the Sharif family but people on the right and left of Imran Khan who were involved in money laundering, adding that he would prove it if somebody challenged him on it.

“You should be ashamed of doing politics based on hollow lies,” Dar said, addressing Imran.

He also narrated when and how he in 1993 met Imran and over the period of time made generous donations for his hospital on his personal requests. “I had a love-and-hate relationship with Imran and it spans over years but now I am completely disappointed,” he said.

He said Imran used to wait for him while sitting in his office in 1993 just to get donations. “He used to wait for my arrival while sitting with my sons in my office. And I used to give him Zakat and donations for his hospital,” he said.

“Under what authority you had entered petition under Article 62 of the Constitution of Pakistan against Nawaz Sharif. You should look at yourself and you will see the California case is enough for you,” Dar said.



A California court had stamped that fact, Dar said, referring to Imran’s child from Sita White, adding that Jemima Khan had taken the girl in her guardianship. “Whatever happened, leave it but she is our daughter also,” he said of Sita and Khan’s daughter.

“In fact he is a coward. What you will say about a person who hides his marriage,” he said of Imran.

“Ask him where his marriage with Jemima occurred,” Dar said, adding that he would say in Paris. “It’s a lie. It happened in Saint John Wart. I know the witnesses who signed his wedding papers,” he said.

The finance minister also questioned Khan’s assets, asking how he had become the second richest politician of the country.

“He is not a son of an industrialist like Nawaz Sharif. How he has become three times richer than me? I have a value. Various countries have offered me double or triple money I have been earning against my services in Pakistan,” he said.

Dar concluded by saying that the truth would prevail in the end.