German newspaper report unverified: Musadik

ISLAMABAD: Spokesman for prime minister Dr Musadiq Malik on Monday said that German newspaper report regarding London flats was unverified.

He said that the lawyers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had failed to prove direct or indirect connection of the prime minister with the London apartments during three weeks of hearings of Panama Papers case in the Supreme Court.

Speaking at a press conference here along with Daniyal Aziz, he said the court repeatedly asked the lawyers of Jamaat-e-Islami and PTI to give a single piece of evidence about connection of prime minister with London flats, but they failed to do so.

He said as it did in case of election rigging, the PTI came with "truckload of evidence" but the result was nil. The Supreme Court asked for positive evidence as newspaper clippings, excerpts from books and assumptions could not be admitted in court as a proof, he explained.

He said the reports of BBC and the German magazine supported the Sharif family's viewpoint in the court. According to the documents, Nescoll and Nielsen owned the flats till 2006, and later the ownership of the properties was transferred from Qatari family to Hussain Nawaz, he said.  There was nothing new in the documents mentioned in the report of the German magazine, he added.  Dr Musadiq said Maryam Nawaz was only the authorised agent and not the beneficial owner of the London flats and signed a trust deed with her brother Hussain Nawaz in early 2006.

On one of the documents, signatures of Maryam Nawaz were forged, he noted. He said that the Supreme Court was provided the documents related to the properties. Dr Musadiq said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not make any misstatement in his speeches and provided the money trail for the gifts exchanged with his children, adding no taxes were evaded during the transactions.

He said that the Supreme Court acknowledged the support given by the prime minister's counsel, Makhdoom Ali Khan during hearing of the case. Daniyal Aziz said in a recent hearing, Imran Khan apologised to the Election Commission to save himself from the contempt of court proceedings.

Imran Khan so far had not provided the money trail to the Election Commission for the foreign funds obtained by PTI in the past years, he added.  He said Imran Khan should provide the money trail and submit himself for investigation of his finances.

Imran Khan and Jehangir Tareen were trying to get stay orders from the courts to hide their malpractices, he added. Daniyal Aziz said Imran Khan was consistently lying and his attitude was detrimental to the country's economy.

Imran Khan also refused to appear before the Lahore High Court 44 times in the case in which he accused Najam Sethi for "35 punctures," he mentioned.  He asked media to visit website of United States Justice Department which gave details of funds generated by Imran Khan from the US cities.

According to account entries on the website, PTI collected money from anonymous donors in the past a few years and used it for political activities and sit-ins, Daniyal Aziz added.  He said the PTI would be dissolved on charges of receiving foreign funding according to election laws of the country.