PM Nawaz Sharif family assets details-Money Trail
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ISLAMABAD: (APP) The Supreme Court Monday adjourned hearing of four identical petitions filed by PTI and others seeking investigation into the Panama Papers till November 17 with direction for both the parties to exchange their copies.
A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer
Jamali comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz ul Hassan heard the case.
During the course of proceedings, Akram Sheikh Counsel for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's children appeared before the court and informed that six units owned by the Prime Minister's family were nationalised by the government in 1972.
He said that the PM's family also established a steel mill in Dubai after the nationalisation of all the six units by using the amount provided by Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai. "75 per cent shares of the mill were given to Al Ahali group while later in 1980 Mian Sharif sold 25 per cent shares," he added.
The counsel also submitted a letter before the court received from Qatari prince Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani, supporting the Sharif family's claim that no money was taken out from Pakistan.
According to the letter written by the Prince, "Mian Muhammad Sharif sold his business in Dubai in the early 1980s and invested 12 million Qatri Dirhams in the real estate business of the Al-Thani family in Qatar. Flats number 17, 17a, 16 and 16a at Avenfield House, Park Lane, London which are now owned by the Sharif family were registered in the names of two offshore companies and were purchased from the proceedings of the real estate business."
"Later in 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Mr Hussain Nawaz Sharif and the Al-Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies [which owned the flats] to a representative of Mr Hussain Nawaz Sharif", the letter said.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed remarked that documents submitted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had no relevance with the case. "The documents are only newspaper clippings which means that the petitioner himself has buried the truth," Justice Azmat remarked.
The court maintained that one side had submitted 700 pages while the other had submitted 1600 pages. "We are not a computer that we scan the documents in a minute," Justice Azmat Saeed remarked.
"Why are you wasting court's time with such stories? Can we announce death sentence over a newspaper story which says Allah Ditta killed Allah Rakha?" he questioned PTI's lawyer Hamid Khan.
"We wanted to give the verdict in two or three days. But we have received too many documents," the bench remarked.
