ISLAMABAD: The Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which investigated the Sharif family’s business dealings to establish its sources of wealth, has recommended that the National Accountability Bureau open a reference against the prime minister and his family after it found glaring disparities between their known sources of income and their actual wealth.
The JIT’s report on the probe, sections of which circulated Monday evening, suggests that a reference should be filed against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his sons Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, as well as daughter Maryam Nawaz under Section 9 of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance 1999.
The JIT has found that the assets of all four are more than the sources of their income and said that they were unable to provide substantive evidence of a reliable money trail.
“Significant gap/disparity amongst the known and declared sources of income and the wealth accumulated by the Respondent No. 1, 6, 7 and 8 have been observed,” the JIT observed in its concluding remarks.
Respondent 1 refers to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; Respondent 6 was Maryam Nawaz; Respondent 7 Hussain Nawaz; while Respondent 8 was Hassan Nawaz.
“The financial structure and health of companies in Pakistan having linkage to the Respondents also do no substantiate the wealth of the Respondents,” it continued.
“Moreover, irregular movement of huge amounts in shape of loans and gifts from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-based company (Hill Metals Establishment), United Kingdom based companies (Flagship Investments Limited and others) and United Arab Emirates based Company (Capital FZE) to Respondent No. 1, Respondent No. 7 and Pakistan based companies of Respondent No. 1 and family have been highlighted.
“The role of off-shore companies is critically important as several offshore companies […] 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.”
“In addition to the companies, Respondent No. 1 and 7 have been found to be recipients of these funds movement into Pakistan as gifts/loans whose purpose/reason have not justified by them before the JIT. Needless to say, these UK companies were loss-making entities with heavily engaged in revolving of funds vis-a-vis creating a smoke screen that the expensive properties of UK were due to the business operations of these UK companies.”
The JIT then refers to Section 9(a)(v) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 — which states that “A holder of public office, or any other person, is said to commit or to have committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices […] if he or any of his dependents or benamidars owns and possesses or has acquired right or title to any assets or holds irrevocable power of attorney in respect of any assets or pecuniary resources disproportionate to his known sources of income, which he cannot reasonably account for or maintains a standard of assets beyond that which is commensurate with his sources of income…”
The JIT also invokes Section 14(c) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which states that: “In any trial of an offence punishable under clause (v) of sub-section (a) of Section 9 of this Ordinance, the fact that the accused person on his behalf, is in possession for which the accused person cannot satisfactorily account, of assets and pecuniary resources disproportionate to his known sources of income, or that such person has, at or about the time of the commission of the offence with which he is charged, obtained an accretion to his pecuniary resources or property for which he cannot satisfactorily account, the Court shall presume, unless the contrary is proved, that the accused person is guilty of the offence of corruption and corrupt practices and his conviction therefore shall not be invalid by reason only that it is based solely on such presumption.”
In a section of the report dealing with the Gulf Steel Mills, the report includes what appears to be an official response from the UAE’s Ministry of Justice rejecting, prima facie, key statements made by Tariq Shafi, a cousin of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and a key respondent in the case.
It says 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. This statement had been a core part of the Sharif family’s defence of their sources of wealth.
The UAE officials further said they found no customs record of the transport of scrap machinery from Ahli Steel Mills from Dubai to Jeddah during 2001-2002 and that, in fact, “it seemed there wasn’t any scrap machinery transported from Dubai to Jeddah during 2001-2002.”
There was also the revelation that there is no record of the transfer of 12m dirhams to Fahad Bin Jasim Bin Jabar Bin Al Thani by Tariq Shafi in UAE’s central bank.
