ISLAMABAD: After the Qatari prince, the son of a British-Pakistani officer has found his way into the Panamagate Case, claiming that the Sharif family bought Mayfair flats through money laundering which were transferred in bank accounts opened on his father’s name without any consent.
The Qatari prince Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani had submitted an affidavit saying that the Mayfair flats were gifted to the Sharif Family by his father. However, in another development in the matter, Kashif Masood, son of Masood Ahmed Qazi, a retired officer from the London Stock Exchange, resident of Illford, Essex London through a letter said that his father was bluffed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who opened accounts in the name of Masood Qazi, the author’s father.
Unlike the Qatari prince, the British-Pakistani has consented to appear before the larger bench of apex court hearing the Panamagate Case in order to record his statement and testimony with more ‘substantial’ evidences. “I am a concerned Pakistani and want to support the Supreme Court of Pakistan in delivering justice. I am sending my report and papers. I have more documents if required and can arrange or appear in courts if needed. “The Mayfair homes had been bought using ill-gotten wealth earned through corrupt practices,” the letter of the author told Supreme Court.
A 74-page letter is sent to Registrar of Supreme Court through email, a copy of which Daily Times possesses. However, it is yet to be decided by officials of the Supreme Court of Pakistan whether the confidential document is admissible or otherwise along with its authenticity.
The author of the letter claimed that his family was once in close relations with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his father Masood Qazi even sponsored him to pursue his studies of accountancy in the UK. Qazi’s son in his letter stated multiple inquiries concluded that bank accounts containing 5 million pounds were set up in the names of three members of his family, adding these deposits were used to raise millions of pounds in loans, which were channeled into Sharif family-owned businesses.
The money was laundered through “fictitious bank accounts” in the names of three members of the Qazi family. The letter stated that the offshore companies Nielsen and Nescoll owned these Park Lane London flats since 1993. The author asked as to how the Sharif family pledged the flats with a UK bank in 1995 to obtain a financial facility without owning the offshore companies.
The 74-letter also cited notices of different banks including Al Faysal bank Limited, Atlas BOT Investment Bank Limited and Bank of America, Lahore, opened on name of Qazi family, calling for repayment of the loans taken for financially facilitating Hamza Board Mills Limited, Chaudhary Sugar Mills Limited, Hudabiya Engineers Private Limited Company and Mayfair flats.
The British Pakistani claimed that he never opened any bank account in Pakistan while the foreign currency bank account No. 260133-91 in his name in the Bank of America, Lahore was neither opened nor any papers concerning to this account was ever signed by him.
“I came to know about the existence of this bank account with a huge foreign currency deposit for the first time only when I received a letter from the Bank of America confirming the balance in my account,” he said adding that account was got opened by using photo copies of his family’s passports by Ishaq Dar, who took copies of passports of the whole family in 1992 for on the pretext of facilitating in getting Pakistani identity card.
Initially, the Supreme Court came down hard on parties to the Panamagate case, and took it upon itself to dig out the truth. As the fifth hearing of the Panamagate case came to an end, the SC declared the documents filed by parties “trash” and letter of Qatari Prince regarding the Sharif family’s business “hearsay”, and vowed that it would not allow the truth to be buried.
“We want the truth to come out. Even the petitioner (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) is burying the truth in these 600 documents,” member of a five-judge larger bench Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed remarked, telling the counsel for the PTI, Hamid Khan, that documents filed by him were just trash. “Newspaper cuttings are not evidence, rather they carry stories,” he further observed.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Tuesday resumed the hearing of Panamagate-related petitions amid tight security and crowded courtroom, which was jam-packed with leadership of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI.
The same treatment was meted out to Akram Sheikh, the counsel for prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz, who informed the bench that a Qatari prince gave money for the London flats. Supporting his claim, the counsel presented a letter authored by Prince Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani.
