Re: REGARDING PANAMA: Qatari letter
Newspapers and books can never ever been part of record or evidence unless they provide clear link and evidence. What happned in past in kangroo courts doesnt mean basic tenants of law will be changed. For Qatari letter, the fact is that Sharif family is in business for decades and they have providing enough money trail plus they were in exile for 9 years. Any one who does their own taxes or finances know the devil is in the details and unless some one is looking at every transaction, its not possible to get to conclusion. Sharif family is providing pretty good financial records. Question is the other side has any thing on them ? So far they have messed up case.
Rest of your questions are meaningless as they pertain to entire financial chain over decades. Nor you can question neither one can answer without having 40 plus years of financial transactions. That is why SC is set up and they will need to comme up with verdict based on who ever has better or more complete evidence. For now it looks like PTI has nothing and Sharif family (as you would expect from any business family) has tons to prove their financial health.
Rest is meaningless.
BARRISTER AITZAZ AHSAN’S FINDINGS ON NAWAZ’S SUBMISSION TO THE COURT REGARDING PANAMA:
Letter gives a fabricated story:
Nawaz addressed the nation twice Panama
The entire money-trail was spelt out by NS. but there was no mention of the Qatari Prince or his father.
Jasim’s letter is hearsay and cannot be taken as evidence. Hearsay is inadmissible. “Suni sunai Baat” is not evidence. And Jasim starts the letter with “I am informed…” Mei’n nay suna hai k…"
3..Moreover, born in 1978, Jasim was an infant when Mian Sharif was allegedly given 12 million dirhams by Jasim’s father. Jasim can have no direct first-hand information of this transfer. His letter is worthless in court.
Jasim’s letter can become admissible as evidence ONLY IF he personally appears in Court and is subjected to CROSS-EXAMINATION AND volunteers to to go to jail for perjury if proved wrong. Then ALONE will he be a witness to be relied upon.
BUT if he appears in the witness box he will have to explain, among other matters:
Sharifs will have to explain how Mian Sharif came about 12 million dirhams that he invested in Al-Thani family business? How did he initially raise the money outside Pakistan despite strict SBP controls? Could he have done so through legitimate means?
REMEMBER: the issue is not that since the old man is dead, there is no one to answer. (Hahaha). No. The question still is WHETHER the money money-trail provided by the LIVING SHARIFs is correct and legitimate or not? Could the ELDER Sharif have actually raised foreign exchange abroad without declaring it in Pakistan? If not, then the 12million dirhams contributed by elder Sharif in 1980 (as per Jasim’s letter) were PROCEEDS OF CRIME and any property made through these funds is liable to confiscated by the state and the owners punished for profiting by laundered money.
Thus it matters not if Mian Sharif is dead. IF the proceeds were illegal to begin with, all purchases from them would be illegal and liable to criminal prosecution. No one can profit from his or his predecessor’s crime.
Jasim’s letter clearly states that the original source of the funds with which the Mayfair Apartments were purchased, were generated through a business partnership with the Qatari Royal Family. Quite convenient because the Royal family pays no taxes and is bound by no fiscal discipline. (Note,too, the LNG contracts and the purchase of No 1 Hyde Park for £42.5 million). The question is: why did NS make no mention of the Qatar connection in the purchase of the Mayfair Apartments?
NS said that his father set up a steel mill in 1980 in Dubai. Jasim says that Mian Sharif invested in Real Estate in 1980. Obviously the statements do not match. Why? Because Jasim could only provide so-called “certification” for real estate only. So the narrative had to be changed from Steel Mill in Dubai (per Nawaz) to Real Estate (per Prince Jasim).
The point remains that having ADMITTED ownership of the Apartments, the BURDEN OF PROOF is on the Sharifs to prove the legitimate means of the purchase. Here conflicting evidence (Jasim million vs NS) has been provided.
AND there is NO EXPLANATION of the question how Mian Sharif took out (or even generated outside Pakistan) 12million dirhams (per Prince Jasim) without declaring these funds to the State Bank of Pakistan? That alone is a criminal act and proceeds thereof are proceeds of crime. That has become the ORIGINAL SIN.
The Supreme Court should summon NS HNS. MNS. Interior Minister and now Hamad Jasim and subject them to cross examination.
IMPORTANT: Significant is the sudden departure from Pakistan of the Interior Minister Nisar Ali. If summoned he would have to confirm his video-recorded statement that the Flats were purchased by NS in 1992-3. PS: this is just the time when the Lahore-Motorway contract was signed!!! If Nisar were to be appear in court he would have to reconfirm his statement demolishing Hussain Nawaz’s version of purchase in 2005-6. So Nisar has been sent into involuntary exile on so-called medical grounds.
FINALLY: for the record:
i. both in the Wali Khan case (1975) and Mohtarama Shaheed BB case (1997) newspaper reports were relied upon against the respondents. How can the Supreme Court not rely on newspaper reports against NS.
ii. If PMs YRG and RPA can be summoned to court, why cannot NS?