Prosecution takes clue from UK court order

Sharif, Maryam pleas to visit ailing Kulsoom dismissed

ISLAMABAD : The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday informed an accountability court that one piece of evidence proving the Sharif family’s association with the London flats was the order of the Justice Queen’s Bench Division, London, which had attached the London apartments in 1999 in the case of Al Towfeek Company against the Hudabiya Paper Mills.

NAB’s Additional Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi argued before the court that if the London flats were owned by the Qatari Royal family, then they must have had approached the court and claimed the properties.

Instead, he said, the Qatari royals did not approach the court and it was the Sharif family that defended the case for defaulting on a loan obtained from the Al Towfeek Investment Fund in the name of the Hudabiya Paper Mills and the London court had ordered to attach four properties of the Sharifs.



In his arguments, Abbasi said the Qatari prince neither provided any proof of the loan settlement with the Al-Towfeek Investment Company nor the proof for the transfer of bearer shares certificates to Hussain Nawaz in 2006, as has been claimed by the accused.

In addition, the NAB prosecutor said the Mossack Fonseca’s correspondence with the Financial Investigation Agency (FIA) of British Virgin Island (BVI) in 2012 clearly establishes that Maryam Nawaz was the beneficial owner of the London flats and the trust deeds produced by Hussain Nawaz were ‘fake’.

Abbasi argued that Maryam had no independent source of income at that time and it could be said that the properties belong to her father Nawaz Sharif.



He alleged that Maryam had concealed real ownership of the flats and the ownership was declared in 2006 only after the UK laws made it mandatory to declare the ownership of properties.

While arguing for the third consecutive day, Abbasi said the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) made several efforts to associate the Qatari royal with its investigation but he avoided on one pretext or another.

He once again said that the Sharif family had the opportunity to produce the Qatari prince in their defence but they did not.

Also, he said, the Sharif family had taken the stance that they would produce money trail before court of law. However, when they got the opportunity to produce the money trail before this court they miserably failed to do so.

In addition, Abbasi said although the accused have denied Forensic Expert Robert Radley’s report regarding ‘fake’ trust deeds, they did not produce any other expert’s report or opinion in their defence.

Abbasi said Radley had accepted that the ‘Calibri’ font was available in 2005 but it was not commercially available in the market.

Abbasi conceded that the Calibri font was available to a limited number of people/organisations, including Radley, but it was not launched commercially until late 2007. Since the trust deeds were written in Feb 2006; “therefore, it cannot be considered as genuine”.

“They were not entitled to use the Calibri font in the trust deeds and for which they maybe charged separately,” Abbasi said.

He said that Jeremy Freeman, one of the signatories of the trust deeds, was given a questionnaire but he did not respond to the entire questions.

Similarly, he said, the JIT relied upon the expert opinion of the UK’s solicitor, Gilead Cooper, procured by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.

Khan had directed Cooper to prepare a report about the beneficial owner of Nielsen and Nescoll companies.

It is to be mentioned that the opinion of another UK-based law firm’s expert, Stephen Moverley Smith, was procured by Hussain Nawaz but the JIT did not rely on him since his opinion was favorable to the Sharif family.



Meanwhile, the ADPG argued that Hussain Nawaz in one of his interviews said that under the Shariah law he and his money belongs to his father, thus, Sharif is the real owner of the London flats. He continued that the accused can’t rebut the TV interviews that have already been made a part of evidence.

Meanwhile, the accountability court rejected deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and daughter Maryam Nawaz’s request for a five-day exemption from trial to visit ailing Kulsoom Nawaz in London.

Judge Bashir had reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments from both sides and later dismissed the application.

They sought exemption from June 11 to June 16, and the exemption petition submitted also had Kulsoom’s medical report attached.

Abbasi would continue his arguments on Friday.