PM Nawaz gestures at supporters. PHOTO: PML-N
The development implies that the ongoing rift between the ruling PML-N and mainstream opposition force PTI, involving Panamagate, is taking a new turn with both sides locked in making moves and counter moves against each other even outside the apex court.
Technically, any fresh evidence over the Panamagate case is not admissible since the Joint investigation Team which probed Sharif family’s offshore properties has now ceased to function. Yet, the Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the respondents had the opportunity to bring forth any evidence in their support related to the case.
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On Tuesday, PTI leaders Naeemul Haq and Babar Awan claimed that their colleague Senator Azam Khan Swati recently visited Dubai and gathered ‘evidence’ regarding Sharif family’s properties in Dubai.
A senior leader in the ruling camp, requesting anonymity, also said that certain PTI leaders, including Swati and others, either visited Dubai or were trying to reach out to authorities in the UAE to obtain documentary evidence that could implicate the Sharif family.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, PTI leader Swati confirmed that he visited Dubai to collect evidence against PM’s offshore properties and his employment at Capital FZE.
“I got all the related evidence verified from a reputed law firm and handed it over to our colleague and counsel in the top court in Panama case, Naeem Bukhari,” the senator said.
To a query regarding admissibility of the evidence in the apex court, he said, “I have done my job and produced the evidence. If anyone has any objection, they should raise it in the apex court and our side would respond.”
Swati said he made legal investments in Dubai and the US. “If a small businessman like me has all the related proofs of his investments abroad, which are reflected in my tax returns and wealth details, how can bigwig like him [Nawaz Sharif] have no unjustifiable trail of his money amounting to trillions of rupees? He shouldn’t be let go of.”
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The senator claimed the evidence he acquired against Sharif would open “floodgates of revelations”.
Alarmed by the move, the PML-N leadership recently made backdoor contacts with royalties in the UAE to legalise their claims to counter documents exposing Sharif family members as beneficial owners of offshore companies in the UAE, sources said.
This, according to sources, explains why the PM recently tried to urgently speak to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, the Vice President and the Prime Minister of the UAE.
In this regard, Pakistan’s Foreign Office wrote a letter on July 12 to the UAE authorities – which made headlines in the media – requesting them to arrange an urgent telephonic contact between Sharif and Al Makhtoum.
The letter, the source said, had to be issued after personal efforts to reach out to the UAE dignitary did not bear fruit. It is still unknown if the PM and the UAE royalty initiated any contact thereafter.
A few days back, reports suggested that PM’s son Hussain Nawaz visited Doha in Qatar in a low-key visit linked to Panamagate.
In an apparently linked move, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met PM Sharif in Islamabad. Although, an official handout claimed that the meeting discussed the current status of mediation between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, reports are also doing rounds that the dignitary may have handed over some ‘crucial material’ linked to Panamagate to the PM.
It merits a mention here that the Sharif family submitted letters written by former Qatari prime minister Prince Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani in support of their money trail in Panamagate case, but the court rejected the letters as myth.
A government official said the PML-N leadership’s major concerns regarding the ongoing proceedings of Panamagate in the Supreme Court involve official documentation obtained by the JIT related to Sharif and Capital FZE.
The respondents have not contested the authenticity of the letter and have admitted that the PM accepted the chairmanship of the Capital FZE’s Board to get ‘Iqama’ or work permit. This argument, the source said, is hard to justify given that Sharif’s position does not need any kind of ‘work permit’ to ensure acquiring visa of any country.
In this context, the ruling lot requires support from the UAE government to give credence to Sharif’s stance taken in the Supreme Court, it is learnt.
“If the Supreme Court is convinced that something is ‘fishy’ regarding Sharif’s connection with Capital FZE and that the possibility of foul play cannot be ruled out, this fact alone might entail adverse consequences,” the insider said.
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