Unorthodox
Senator (1k+ posts)
ISLAMABAD:
New documents submitted by the Sharif family before the Supreme Court have created another twist in the Panamagate case. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz has now claimed that his sister, Maryam Safdar, was acting as his ‘authorised signatory/representative’ in matters pertaining to management of two offshore companies – Nielsen and Nescoll – that own the Sharifs’ London flats.
The PM’s sons – Hussain and Hassan – through their counsel Salman Akram Raja on Thursday submitted an additional statement along with documentary evidences to establish the money trail for acquiring their London flats. The PTI, while submitting few documentary evidences, has claimed that Maryam is the beneficial owner of both London flats.
The Sharif family had earlier denied the PTI’s claim in the fresh statement by saying that the so-called documents, showing Maryam as a beneficial owner of the companies, were forged. However, the family, in its fresh statement has further elaborated the role of Maryam regarding the ownership of London properties. The statement says that Hussain requested his sister to act as his authorised signatory/representative in the matter pertaining to management of Nielsen and Nescoll.
For this purpose, it was decided to appoint M/s Minerva Trust Corporate Services Limited, Minerva Nominees Limited, Minerva Services Limited and Minerva Officer Limited – companies regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission – as service providers with respect to both the offshore companies after Hussain acquired their shares.
Consequently, Samba Financial Group – with which the family of Hussain Nawaz had banking relations – was requested to introduce Maryam to Minerva. This resulted in the letter dated December 3, 2005 addressed by Samba Financial Group to Minerva.
“At the time of the letter… Hussain had not acquired possession or ownership of the shares of Nielsen and Nescoll. Hussain met with the director of Minerva, U Sahai, in January 2006 in order to finalise the appointment of Minerva. He requested his sister Maryam to act as his authorised signatory and to communicate his instructions to Minerva,” says the statement.
Interestingly, in another document attached by the PM’s family and tagged as ‘Trust Deed’ between Maryam and Hussain, there is no mention of the former’s role as an authorised signatory in the affairs of these companies.
The Sharif family, in their earlier statement, also did not reveal that Maryam was given the role of authorised signatory. Likewise, in a second letter from a Qatari prince, the Sharif family claimed that it invested 12 million dirhams in cash in real estate business, suggesting that there was no money trail left behind, as no banking channels were used for these transactions.
In 1980, the PM’s father, Mian Mohammad Sharif, made an investment of approximately twelve million dirhams ($3.25 million) in the real estate business of the Al-Thani family. However, the investments and subsequent earnings from it showed some interesting patterns. It seemed that every fortune of the Sharif family was emanating from this Qatari investment.
The documents showed that within five years of investment the Sharif family earned $3.7 million, which was even more than its original investment. The Sharifs have also shown proceeds of the investment as source of every investment that they made in the UK.
Another interesting thing is that in the twenty years from 1980 to 2000, the Sharif family did not claim the profits from their investment and the first withdrawal was made in 2000 when it took away $8 million and paid for Al-Towfeeq Investments.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2017.
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