Jahangir Tareen, Zulfi obtained PTI’s latest Panama ‘evidence’

LONDON: Senior PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen and Imran Khan’s businessman friend Zulfi Bukhari managed to obtain the full Panama file and some of the pages from this file have been now presented before the Supreme Court of Pakistan as “evidence” allegedly proving Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s status as the “beneficial owner” of the offshore companies Nescoll and Nielson.

Two forensic accountancy and search firms called Ereco and Kroll were hired by Zulfi and Tareen in the last two months, a trusted PTI source told The News. The PTI source told that these firms were able to share “around 45,000 different documents with Tareen and Zulfi on this matter”.  The source said that “thousands of Pounds” were paid in the fees but didn’t reveal the exact amount. PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen spent a week here towards the end of December 2016 and he and Zulfi Bukhari worked together to get this file from their sources in British Virgin Islands (BVI), a PTI insider confirmed to The News.

It’s understood that Zulfi Bukhari has been trying through his contacts in the BVI and New Jeresy Island to collect anything that could cause legal trouble for the Sharif family members. Zulfi Bukhari himself knows about the offshore business in great detail since his name was not only released in Panama leaks but its been established that he owns around half a dozen offshore shells directly and in the name of his close family members.

The PTI source told The News that the “professional advice” helped the party to get hold of the papers unseen before and Imran Khan has been very happy seeing the emails exchanges. He told a news conference that the latest “evidence” is concrete but PMLN has countered that the “unverified” and “photocopied” papers cannot be considered as evidence admissible in a court of law.

Whether or not the latest few pages will lead to anything incriminating will be seen in coming days but there is no doubt that the PTI leaders were seen jubilant after getting hold of these papers. Earlier during the hearing by the SC, PTI’s legal team was roasted in the court room and the PTI’s arguments and legal defence became a matter of jokes as against all the tall claims the PTI couldn’t produce a single piece of evidence proving money-laundering by the Sharif family.

The News revealed how Zulfi, JKT and Aleem Khan had promised to hire forensic experts but then went quiet for many months. It’s understood that in the last two months, contact was made with at least three forensic experts with whom Imran Khan, Aleem Khan and JKT had held first meeting at Zulfi Bukhari’s office in April last year. Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan and Zulfi Bukhari control properties through offshore companies and Imran Khan also owned an offshore company called “Niazi Services Limited”.

The new Supreme Court bench started hearing into the Panama case yesterday relying mainly on the “new” evidence as the so-called evidence presented earlier was described as “heaps of worthless papers” during the court proceedings.

The latest “evidence” relates to a series of emails exchanged between Mossack Fonseca and Minerva Trust & Corporation Services Limited as well as replies to the Financial investigation agency FIA of the BVI apparently showing that Maryam Safdar was the beneficial owner of Nescoll and Nielson companies. PMLN has rubbished the documents as unverified and unauthentic.

PTI has claimed that the series of emails collectively reaffirms and establishes that, contrary to the stance of Maryam Safdar before the top court in previous hearings, she is and has been the beneficial owner of Nielsen and Nescoll and the Mayfair flats.

According to documents, Mossack on 14 May 2012 received a letter from the FIA which was then forwarded internally for action within Mossack on the instructions of its Managing Director (MD) by the Compliance Department of Mossack.

To entertain the queries, head of Compliance Department emailed Minerva for the information required as part of ‘internal audit.’ The Head of Compliance of Mossack requested information including name, contacts details, physical address and passport copy of the ultimate beneficial owner of the companies, Nescoll and Nielson, from Minerva, the document stated. It further stated that the email also requested information about the directors and shareholders of above mentioned entities along with the name of any trustee connected with these entities.