Advocate Salman Akram Raja counsel of Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, has submitted a plethora of documents to the Supreme Court related to the sale of Dubai factory in 1980 along with a letter written by Qatari former prime minister Sheikh Hamad in which he has acknowledged investment of twelve million AED ‘made by way of provision of cash’ by late Mian Sharif in his family real estate business back in 1980.
It is a second Qatari letter to have surfaced during past two months, the first one appeared back in November, 2016. The second letter however, offers nothing new and reiterates the stance of previous letter.
On Thursday, while hearing of Panamagate scandal continued before Justice Khosa led 5-member Bench and advocate Shahid Hamid was arguing the dependency of Maryam Nawaz, her income and expenditures, and whereabouts of land gifted to her by PM. The courtroom was abuzz with arrival of a second Qatari letter during the break.
What was initially thought of a just another Qatari letter turned out to be a 136 page long CMA by Hassan and Hussain Nawaz submitted through their counsel Salman Raja.
‘During his lifetime the late Mian Sharif had informed Respondent No 7 (Hussain Nawaz) that he had placed an amount of UAE 12 million Dirhams, obtained from the sale of shares in the steel company in Dubai, with the late Sheikh Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, a senior member of the Royal Family of Qatar, in 1980,’ reads an excerpt from the statement.
The statement in its preliminary submissions recounts the history of founder of Sharif family, Mian Sharif starting from 1936, when he started his career. It also makes reference to the effect nationalization policy of Bhutto’s regime had on Sharif family, setting of Gulf Steel Mill in Dubai in 1973, setting up of five industrial organizations in Pakistan within a short span of 18 months during 70’s and other business endeavors in 80’s till the division of Ittefaq Group in 1990.
It also says that Sharif family set up Hudaibiya Paper Mills, Hamza Board Mills, Chaudhary Sugar Mills, Hudaibiya Engineering, Mehran Ramzan Textile Mills and a trust.
The submitted statement annexes relevant documents to the Gulf Steel factory including letter from Dubai Municipality acknowledging existence of the factory on a rented plot of 1,000,000 square feet in the Al Ramool area, copy of the agreement dated April 14, 1980, copy of the site plan, copy of the land rent agreement, letter of credit and other.
Furthermore, the statement also accompanies copy of sale and purchase agreement for Azizia Steel Plant for a total consideration of 63 million Saudi Riyals back on 20-03-2005.
Correspondence with Lawrence Radley, solicitor of Reda Smith, is also submitted where he confirms to act ‘on behalf of the purchasers of the above properties in, or around, 1993-1996’. ‘To the best of my recollection, the properties were purchased through two B.V.I (British Virgin Islands) companies, Nielson Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited and my instructions to purchase were not provided by any member of the Sharif family,’ it reads.
The reply also annexes legal opinion regarding the formalities regarding a valid trust by Stephen Moverley Smith, a senior legal counsel practicing in the United Kingdom and British Virgin Islands.
Also, a letter dated 11-01-2017 from JPCA Corporate Accountants says that the secretarial administration of Nescoll and Nielson Enterprises Limited was transferred from Minerva to JPCA on June 2, 2014.