Hussain Nawaz speaks of ‘secrecy, bias’ in Panama JIT formation

ISLAMABAD: Hussain Nawaz — the elder son of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif – has claimed that former Supreme Court judge Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who was part of the Panama Papers case, has misstated the facts about evidence of Nawaz Sharif’s alleged salary accrual since 2006. He said the relevant company had closed well before the Panama case and hence there was no question of an alleged receivable salary.

In a telephonic interview, Hussain Nawaz responded to questions about Justice Ejaz Afzal’s claims regarding the Panama judgement. Last week, the former apex court judge spoke with this correspondent, giving a detailed account of his judgement for the first time since his retirement. He discussed the case’s background, the formation and selection of the JIT members, and the case merits.

Below is the detailed conversation this correspondent had with Hussain Nawaz.

Hussain termed the admission by Justice (retd) Ejaz Afzal of having procured the nomination for the JIT of handpicked officers through WhatsApp calls as a “brazen confession of bias and a mockery of the due process of law which is a basic right”.

He said: “If it were transparency they sought then they should have been transparent themselves. What was the reason for forming a JIT through shady and clandestine WhatsApp calls? If they wanted fair and clean people with unflinching integrity on the JIT, they could have asked for them in the open court, and no one would have dared to stop them. They, on the contrary, manipulated from behind the scenes to bring their handpicked people on the JIT and never made that part of the official record. You cannot cite ‘possible interference’ as an excuse to override the system yourself. And how could the government interfere while you had full support of the then establishment? In other words it was a blatant and unpardonable abuse of judicial authority and abuse of judicial process to remove yet another elected prime minister.”

When asked if the people nominated for the JIT were compromised and approachable as claimed by Justice (retd) Ejaz, he responded: “It was never about the people who were initially nominated by Statutory Institutions in the first place. It was about having their handpicked people on the JIT to serve General Faiz’s ends.”

He commented on the inclusion of certain individuals in the JIT, saying: “Justice (retd) Azmat Saeed Sheikh was instrumental in this entire process. While he was the deputy prosecutor general of NAB he was the close confidante entrusted with fabricating cases against the Sharif family during General Musharraf’s regime. In other words he was the one who initially fabricated these cases and subsequently sat on the bench to adjudicate them - an act sufficient in itself to invalidate the trial.”

He further added: “Aamir Aziz from the State Bank of Pakistan was his ace colleague and collaborator then and of course made part of the JIT. Bilal Rasul, the first cousin of Hammad Azhar, who had worked closely with them was also placed on the JIT, thanks to the WhatsApp callers. Finally other than the agencies’ officials - who also happened to have been on the Dawn Leaks JIT – the NAB chairman was instructed through yet another WhatsApp call to nominate Irfan Naeem Mangi. Hence, the JIT was constituted completely of handpicked anti-Sharif officials who would go to any extent to meet their puppeteer’s ends.

“There is an important legal principle that one cannot be a judge in his own cause. It was Azmat Saeed Sheikh who fabricated these baseless cases in the first place during the Musharraf regime and subsequently sat on the Panama Bench to adjudicate! In short, it was all predetermined. They might as well have announced their verdict without hearing, sparing the nation’s expense and time.”

When asked if he believed the judges were under pressure, or had personal grudges against the Sharif family, Hussain said: “I don’t know if the judges were under pressure or acted out of personal grudges yet I do know from Justice Shaukat Siddiqui’s revelations that coercion then was the norm.”

While praising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, Hussain Nawaz said he was courageous unlike the Panama judges as he at the peak of his career opted for the right path and resisted General Faiz’s onslaughts when he told him ‘Hamari Do Saal Ki Mehnat Zaya Ho Jaye Gi’. He added that lately Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali also denounced the Panama verdict.

On the question about the secrecy of Volume 10, which remains undisclosed till date, he stated, “There’s nothing in Volume 10. Zero plus zero adds up to zero. There’s nothing in it,” dismissing the idea of any significant content.

“Do you know how the JIT obtained the documents? The main document behind his disqualification was just a screenshot of a computer screen taken from a mobile phone camera. It was neither issued by the relevant authorities nor notarised nor legalized, and not in the slightest admissible evidence in a court of law, yet this bench not only admitted it but also asked a host of questions about it. The only thing they failed to do in their haste was to take cognisance of the truth.”

Hussain also claimed: “There is no evidence that the salary was accrued since 2006.”

He accused the judge of misstating facts and demanded that any such evidence be shown. “I am certain there was no document before the Supreme Court that unequivocally proved the salary had accrued since 2006,” he said, adding: “In this case there was no accrual nor receivable in any way because the company was no longer active. The company had been closed well before the dates on which the Panama case was heard. A company is a legal person, and if the legal person ceases to exist, how can there be accruals or receivables? From whom would you receive the amount if the company did not exist anymore?”

Talking about Iqama (residence permit), Hussain Nawaz said: “Following the military coup and the exile of my family which cannot be justified under any law, Nawaz Sharif obtained UAE residency through his son’s company after leaving Saudi Arabia. A legal requirement for obtaining the residency was ticking boxes online including salary and other information. This salary was never asked for and nor received.” Hussain emphasized: “By the time the Panama case was heard in the Supreme Court, the company no longer existed,” reinforcing that no salary could have accrued.

He further said: “They were looking for any reason to send an elected prime minister home. When they couldn’t find any corruption, they used the flimsiest of excuses to dismiss him. In essence he was declared not to be ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ for not declaring an undrawn salary accrual from a company that no longer existed. It is such a weak and infamous judgement that no lawyer or judge would like to cite the Panama verdict as a legal precedent. And what evidence of corruption did the JIT establish? What was their report other baseless statements and innuendos? They failed to find any crime and the Bench sent yet another prime minister home for not receiving a salary from his son. It clearly shows they were serving someone else’s purpose.”

To a question about the pressure on the former NAB chairman regarding the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, Hussain Nawaz said: “The Hudaibiya case was quashed twice by the high court and once by the Supreme Court. How could they call a member of the executive and direct him to use his authority and contravene the law, appeal against a party whose case they are already hearing? What is bias if not this? Did it not show they were desperate and out of options in meeting their target of dismissing the elected prime minister?”

When asked about handing over the JIT security to the agencies, Hussain Nawaz said: “Why were the judges not open about it? Why couldn’t they openly admit giving JIT security duty to the agencies? I appeared before the JIT six times, and every time they kept me waiting the entire day. There was no proper investigation. The entire premises were under General Faiz’s control. Even the call-up notices were delivered by their functionaries.”

When asked if the Sharif family raised objections to the inclusion of ISI and MI officials in the JIT, Hussain said: “We raised objections on Bilal Rasul and Amir Aziz. In response, Azmat Saeed Sheikh remarked in the court, ‘Har Aik Ke Chachay Mamay Dekhna Shuroo Kar Dain To Phir Koi Fit Nahi Ho Sakay Ga’ [if we start looking at everyone’s kith and kin no one will be fit for the job]. Later, it was revealed that he [Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh[ was the one who hand-picked them.”

“This isn’t just about their inclusion in the JIT. Everything was controlled by them. When they leaked my photo, their intention was to humiliate me. I raised the matter before the court but Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan said, ‘Does it make any difference if the photo is leaked?’ Among many others like Godfather and Sicilian mafia, this is yet another example of their bias,” Hussain Nawaz said while referring to Justice Asif Saeed Khosa’s remarks in the Panama judgement authored by him.