Fate of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari politics will decide on 24 December

Verdict on second and third reference:

An accountability court has reserved its verdict in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Flagship Investment and Al-Azizia references against the ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The verdict will be announced on 24th December (Monday), a revised date given by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to the accountability court to wrap up the references against Mr. Sharif.

On Wednesday, Mr. Sharif’s legal counsel requested the court to grant them more time so that they may submit some documents related to Hassan and Hussain Nawaz’s, Nawaz’s sons, business. The request for a full week’s time was, however, turned down by the judge, who told Haris that he could submit the documents in court latest by Monday.

Khawaja Haris, legal counsel for Sharifs, while presenting his final argument today, told the judge that “Nawaz Sharif has never admitted that he received a salary from Capital FZE”, adding that his client’s position in the said company was “honorary”. The counsel also claimed that Sharif had obtained employment in Capital FZE for visa purposes only.

Moreover, prior to Nawaz’s counsel, the NAB prosecutor informed the court that Mr. Sharif had been receiving AED 10, 000 from Capital FZE between 2006 and 2013. He said the Sharif family was given the first opportunity in the Supreme Court to explain holding of their property. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the SC in the Panama Papers case was the second forum where they could justify their assets whereas another chance was given to them by the investigation officer when he summoned them before the filing of the application.

The family could not justify their assets despite being given multiple opportunities, he added. The prosecutor said the Sharif family took a plea before the apex court that while they were in exile, Mian Mohammad Sharif, the ousted-PM’s father who passed away in 2004, managed AED 5.4 million for Hussain Nawaz and AED 4.2 million for Hassan Nawaz so that they could establish their businesses in the UK and Saudi Arabia. Sharif family had said money was taken out of the AED 12 million that Late Mian Sharif had invested with Qatari Royal family.

The prosecutor said, however, Qatari Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani never appeared before the JIT to verify the details. Sharif’s advocate Haris explained that Mian Sharif had established Gulf steel Mills in UAE in 1974; its shares were sold by 1980 and the amount of AED 12 million gained out of selling shares was invested with Qatari family.

The prosecutor countered the explanation saying those were private transactions according to Sharif family itself, as the amount was never transferred through official channels; the reason JIT did not believe in Sharif family’s explanations. He further argued that Sharifs had to justify the investment of AED 5.4 million by Mr. Hussain in Al-Azizia/Hill Metal Establishment and AED 4.2 million by Mr. Hassan in flagship Investment and other companies but family failed to explain the investment.

The prosecutor claimed that Mr. Sharif was the real owner of the companies established by his sons who were just benamidar. To that, Khawaja Haris did not have any defense and sought time to rebut the prosecutor’s argument.

It is also important to mention that the SC disqualified Mr. Sharif in Panama Paper’s judgment since he was unable to satisfy the court over his assets beyond known sources. Mr. Sharif filed a review petition against the decision but the petition was dismissed by the court.  In the same judgment, the most senior judge of the apex court, Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khosa has observed that Mr. Sharif is not an honest and truthful person and therefore not eligible to hold any public office.

• Trial against Sharif Family:

According to details, the trial against the Sharif family had commenced on September 14, 2017. On July 6, after four extensions in the original six-month deadline to conclude all three cases, the accountability court announced its verdict in the Avenfield reference. Nawaz, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar were sentenced to 11 years, eight years and one year, respectively, in prison. Mr. Nawaz and his sons, Hussain and Hasan, are accused in all three references whereas Maryam and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only. The two brothers, based abroad, have been absconding since the proceedings began last year and were declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

• Probable Decision :

Legal experts believe that Mr. Sharif remained unable to present a sufficient amount of evidence to back his claims of innocence. For example, the ousted Prime Minister remained unable to deny that he received money from the Capital FZE between 2006 and 2013. Defence counsel couldn’t justify Sharif sons’ investments either.  The case before the court is not legally complex since Nawaz and his legal counsel are still trying to bring some documents in order to make their point.

JIT Report for fake accounts:

A Joint Investigation Team  has completed its report in a major money laundering and fake bank accounts case involving the Omni Group in which former president Asif Zardari has also faced questions.

The head and members of the  went to Islamabad and submitted to the Supreme Court the report of the investigation that continued for three months and eleven days. Eleven boxes containing documentary evidence were also taken to the federal capital.

The investigation of money laundering involving billions of rupees started in December 2015. According to sources in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), suspicious bank accounts were unearthed and the owner of a money exchange company taken into custody by an intelligence agency made disclosures about them during investigations.

Initial investigations revealed that suspicious transactions of approximately Rs15 billion had been made through such accounts in the Sindh and Summit banks. Contractor companies working with Sindh government deposited money in the accounts of companies which later proved to be fictitious.

Later these amounts were not only transferred into the accounts of Omni Group, a bank official and the Zardari Group’s accounts but personal expenses of important persons of the political party were also paid from them, the sources alleged. These included expenses for foreign travel and purchase of luxury vehicles. However these investigations were put on the back burner for unknown reasons.

In December 2017, the investigations were opened once again and the Financial Monitoring Unit that investigates money laundering issued a report of suspicious transactions. The FIA formally started its investigations afterwards.

In July, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of slow progress in the investigations. The FIA registered a case of money laundering on July 6 and arrested former chief of Summit Bank Hussain Lawai and senior banker Taha Raza. Later Anwar Majeed and his son AG Majeed of the Omni Group were also arrested. The FIA told the SC that money laundering of Rs 37 billion had been done through 29 bank accounts of seven companies.

The FIA prepared lists of big contracting firms associated with the Sindh government  which had transferred billions of rupees into the accounts, the fictitious companies in whose names the accounts were opened and the influential people and groups that received money from these companies.

It is seem that maybe Asif Ali Zardari will be arrested after publishing of this report and some concrete resources said that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also named in this JIT report,this is really damaging for  PPP politics.

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