ISLAMABAD: Salman Akram Raja, the counsel for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons, on Wednesday argued that no evidence has been produced against Hussain Nawaz in the Panama Papers case.
Raja said his clients are not responsible to provide any additional documents.
Justice Ijazul Hassan, a member of the larger bench hearing Panama Papers case, stated that Sharif family should present facts before the public. Who is owner of offshore companies, this is the real question, he observed.
Earlier, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh asked Salman Akram Raja about the documents to establish Hussain Nawaz as owner of London flats. “Where the document which could show Hussain Nawaz is the beneficial owner of Landon flats?” asked the judge.
The apex court judge also asked the counsel to provide Hussain Nawaz’s agreement with Minerva Financial Services Limited, a company which the premier’s family claims is a service provider to Nielsen and Nescoll offshore companies owned by the premier’s son.
Meanwhile, head of the five-member bench Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said that this is the stage which will make or break the Panama Papers case.
Salman Akram Raja argued that the family of Prime Minister has a history of business and multiple members of the family are in the business. He said it will be wrong to say that that they established the business by some wrong doing.
The counsel said it is also unprecedented that a family has been asked to present property record of last forty to forty five years. The record was confiscated during martial law in 1999.
He further argued that the court cannot reach a just conclusion in the case without first conducting a judicial inquiry.
“There is no charge against the Prime Minister, so there is no charge against his children either,” he said. He told the apex court that it is not his clients’ responsibility to present additional documents. Salman Akram Raja will continue his arguments today. NNI
==================
