JIT’s law firm fails in making progress

LONDON: The law firm hired by the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) here has failed to make any progress in gathering evidence as the JIT submits its final report to the Supreme Court two months after it started looking into the Panama case relating to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family.

The law firm wrote to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) asking if the signatures on the trust deed were genuine and whether it can verify that no forgery has taken place. It’s understood that the FCO has not replied to the law firm. Same is the case with various housing societies and banks, including Barclays, HSBC, American Express and Lloyds TSB who have not engaged with the lawyer on questions asked in relation the authentication of the documents.

Banks in Britain are under legal obligation not to divulge information about individual and business accounts of their customers to their parties unless there is a criminal investigation and there are court orders or requests for the banks to cooperate and in such cases the banks are not bound to provide details beyond six years.

The News understands that all the banks which have done business with Hasan and Hussain Nawaz have already confirmed in writing to the Supreme Court that they are fully satisfied with their clients and that the monies Nawaz Sharif’s sons received in their UK accounts, including the outgoing payments, were clean and legitimate. It’s understood that the banks have said that they never suspected there was any kind of money-laundering involved.

The banks have already confirmed that there never has been any concern about the business dealings of Hasan and Hussain Nawaz Sharif in relation to their companies, operational for around two decades now.

The JIT’s London law firm has written to these banks seeking to verify whether the banks stood by their position; the letters have also asked the banks to provide statements of all the accounts held under the names of Hasan and Hussain Nawaz.

It has been learnt that none of the bank has replied to these letters and it’s impossible that the banks will divulge any kind of information about their clients to a law firm because it will be a breach of the date protection and client/customer confidentiality laws.

Since there is no civil or criminal case against any of the Sharif family members in Britain, it’s impossible that any such request even at the government level will be entertained let alone a private law firm.

Similarly Revenue & Customs and Land Registry departments will not disclose any information about the data they hold unless there are strong legal grounds for this, but any information will be released either to the person directly owning the businesses or to the police through a court order clearly explaining the need and justification for such a disclosure – which in this case is non-existent.

Lawyers acting for Hasan and Hussain Nawaz have already told the JIT’s law firm in a letter two weeks ago that signatures on the trust deed between Hussain and Maryam Nawaz and each and every other paper submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in February this year is Notrified by the solicitors, Pakistan High Commission and the FCO.

The Sharif family submitted the bearer share certificates, to the SCP, of the four London flats which have remained in the custody of Maryam between February and July 2006.

A trust deed was executed between Maryam and Hussain in February 2006, following which she acted as a trustee for her brother. Lawyers acting for Hasan and Hussain have told the SCP, through an oath form, that the trust deed between Hussain and Maryam was signed in their presence in February 2006.

A source at Pakistan High Commission said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan or its JIT members did not make any contact with it at any stage to seek help for the verification of papers or to seek any evidence from any private or government department. The spokesman said that any request made will be considered and appropriate steps will be taken.

Originally published in The News