Significant disparity in Sharif family's income, actual wealth: JIT report
The hearing has been adjourned till July 17.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by Supreme Court to probe much-hyped Panama Leaks case, found disparity in the Sharif family’s source of income and wealth which it failed to substantiate.
The final JIT report that was submitted in SC on Monday stated that, “significant gap/disparity amongst the known and declared sources of income and the wealth accumulated by the Respondent No. 1 (PM), 6 (Maryam Nawaz), 7 (Hussain Nawaz) and 8 (Hassan Nawaz) have been observed.”
The JIT members expressed dissatisfaction on the money trail submitted by Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz.
JIT highlights three more off-shore companies of Sharif family
Highlighting three more off-shore companies of the Sharif family, JIT said “the role of off-shore companies is critically important as several offshore companies (Nescoll Limited, Nielson Enterprises Limited, Alanna Services Limited, Lamkin S.A, Coomber Group Inc., Hiltern International Limited) have been identified to be linked with their businesses in UK while conducting this investigation. These companies were mainly used for inflow of funds into UK based companies; which not only acquired expensive properties in UK from such funds but also revolve these funds amongst their companies of UK, KSA, UAE and Pakistan."
Respondents being shareholders in Ittefaq Sugar Mills, Hamza Spinning Mills
It was also stated that Nawaz Sharif and his sons have share in Ittefaq Sugar Mills, Ittefaq Textiles and Hamza Spinning Mills. “These companies were mainly incorporated in 1980s and 1990s when the respondent 1 (PM) was holding public office,” it continued.
“The respondents being shareholders injected nominal capital as seed money and these companies were mainly entrusted with borrowed funds from bank/financial institutions/foreign institutions or foreign incorporated special purpose vehicles.”
The report said that Nawaz Sharif and Hussain Nawaz took funds as gift and loan but they were unable to defend this before JIT. Needless to say, These UK companies were loss-making entities with heavily engaged in revolving of funds vis-à-vis creating a smoke screen that the expensive properties of UK were due to the business operations of these UK companies.
Maryam Nawaz declared beneficial owner of Nescoll, Nielson companies
JIT also declared Maryam Nawaz as beneficial owner of Nescoll Limited and Nielson Enterprises Limited and accused her of commiting criminal offence by concealing it. Maryam had earlier refuted all the allegations and said she was only a trustee of the companies.
“The trust declaration documents, presented by Ms Maryam Safdar to the JIT as well as the photocopies of these documents submitted in the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan are fake and fabricated documents,” the JIT stated.
Tariq Shafi’s record rejected by UAE’s Ministry of Justice
It further said that an official response from the UAE’s Ministry of Justice has rejected all the records submitted by PM’s cousin Tariq Shafi in the case.
It said that the sale of 25pc of the shares of Al Ahli Steel (Gulf Steel Mills) in April 1980 for 12 million dirhams, as claimed by Tariq Shafi, never occurred and no record of its notarisation could be found.
"It seemed there wasn’t any scrap machinery transported from Dubai to Jeddah during 2001-2002."
JIT recommended to file a corruption reference against PM Nawaz and his sons in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) before announcing the final verdict. However, the hearing has been adjourned till July 17.
SC had ordered to make JIT report public, but not its volume 10, after which Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) decided to challenge it in the top court before the next hearing. The premier reaffirmed that neither he nor his family ever participated in corrupt practices, adding that all documents required by the JIT were handed over. “I and (Sharif) family never did any corruption and our hands are clean,” he issued the statement.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan demanded PM Nawaz Sharif to immediately resign on moral grounds. He accused that the government had tried whatever it took to obstruct the investigation process and also discredited the state institutions in the process.
