Crashed before the virgin flight  

Maryam’s political career teetering on the brink even before a takeoff

Maryam also served as de facto prime minister, used to chair meetings attended by top bureaucrats and also led the country’s foreign, trade and commerce policies without holding a public office

While she has been fighting a media war to defend her father — who happened to be the prime minister — amid the Panama Papers case, the political career of Maryam Nawaz Sharif is about to end even before it could properly take off.

The elder first daughter has been bold, smart and leads a team of very innovative propagandists to counter the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) trolls on social media websites. Moreover, she has been acting as de-facto information minister since even before the former information minister, Senator Pervez Rasheed, had been sacked in wake of Dawn leaks JIT report.

Maryam also served as de facto prime minister, used to chair meetings attended by top bureaucrats and also led the country’s foreign, trade and commerce policies without holding a public office.

She also used to act as the unofficial spokesperson of the prime minister though there is no notification to suggest so. She used to share policy decisions on social media websites, issue media policy for print media and would directly release directions to electronic media for covering or not covering any political event.

She is ambitious, media-savvy and a strategist who leads a group of officials to defend her family which is facing a barrage of attacks from all over as almost all major opposition parties, bar associations and even the Pakistan Bar Council have been out on the roads to put pressure on the ruling family to call it quits.

It is an irony that while Maryam Nawaz Sharif has been a vanguard of women’s rights, most of the womenfolk are opposing her father’s party, according to successive surveys.

However, it was the Supreme Court judgment on the Panama case which has almost sealed her political fate before she could be officially launched as the political heir to her father.

The SC has directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to prepare and file before the Accountability Court, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, the following Referenceswithin six weeks from the date of this judgment; on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the Joint Investigating Team (JIT) in its report and such other material as may be available with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB having any nexus with assets mentioned below or which may subsequently become available including material that may come before it pursuant to the Mutual Legal Assistance requests sent by the JIT to different jurisdictions:-

1. a) Reference relating to the Avenfield properties (Flats No. 16, 16-A, 17 and 17-A Avenfield House, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom). In preparing and filing this reference, NAB shall also consider the material already collected during the course of investigations conducted earlier, as indicated in the detailed judgments;
2. b) NAB shall also include in the proceedings all other persons including Sheikh Saeed, Musa Ghani, Kashif Masood Qazi, Javaid Kiyani and Saeed Ahmed, who have any direct or indirect nexus or connection with the actions of Maryam Nawaz leading to acquisition of assets and funds beyond her known sources of income.

The JIT report had found Ms Maryam Nawaz Sharif as ‘beneficial owner’ of Avenfield Properties as well as offshore companies of Nescoll & Nielsen. The report has also charged her for submitting fake/falsified documents to the JIT, which is a criminal offence.

“Ms Maryam Safdar has submitted fake/falsified documents to the JIT which is a criminal offence. These documents are decoys to manipulate facts and camouflage truth,” says the conclusions about the findings of the JIT,” the report says.

“The report prepared by the UK-based forensic handwriting and document examiner proves beyond any doubt that presented documents by respondents in the Supreme Court and the documents presented to the JIT by Ms Maryam Safdar were falsified to mislead the honourable court to believe that they were signed in 2006. Whereas they could not have been typed in that font in that year as the font was not yet introduced,” the report said.

Moreover, the report said that Mr Hussain Nawaz and Captain (R) Safdar as well as Ms Maryam have also signed these falsified and misleading documents.

About the ownership of Avenfield properties by Ms Maryam Nawaz, the JIT report said two key documents helped the JIT to draw a conclusion about not only the ownership of the London apartments but also about nearly all the questions raised by the Apex Court in this regard.

Referring to JIT’s MLA, Mr Errol George (Director, Financial Investigation Agency, BVI) has certified/verified his correspondence with Ms J. Nizbeth Maduro (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) Mossack Fonseca & Co. (BVI) during June 2012 as true copies.

In this letter, addressed to the JIT, Mr Errol George has confirmed that a letter dated 12 June 2012 was issued by the financial investigation agency of the British Virgin Islands, signed by Mr Errol George, director, raising various queries about Nescoll & Nielsen Limited.

The report by the forensic handwriting and document examiner further corroborates and substantiates the certified letters of Mr Errol George which indicates that Ms Maryam was beneficial owner of Nielsen & Nescoll companies.

The verified letter indicates that Ms J Nizbeth Maduro had sent two letters on 22 June 2012, has provided following findings:

(a) The beneficial owner of the companies, Nielsen & Nescoll Limited, is Maryam Safdar whose address is Saroor Palace, Jeddah, for which passport copy is enclosed for ease of reference.

(b) There are no details of any other beneficiaries or trustees of the company other than Ms Maryam Safdar.

Hence, the letter says, the authenticated documents render incorrect, into, the defence of Ms Maryam Safdar (Respondent No-6) and Mr Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Respondent No-7) taken before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the JIT with respect to the beneficial ownership of the apartments and the trust deed submitted as under.

The accepted letter establishes link of Ms Maryam Safdar with Minerva Services since December 2005. Moreover, the contention of Ms Maryam Safdar of being Trustee of Avenfield properties and that being the reason for her linkage with Minerva services and the Samba letter is rendered totally incorrect by the authenticated letters of Mr Errol George that plainly prove that she was a beneficial owner of these properties which were managed by Minerva Services.

Eminent lawyer, Barrister Ali Zafar, who has been following the Panama Papers case since day-one, believes that Maryam’s political career is teetering on the brink as she faces allegations of perjury, submission of false/forged documents before the court and concealment of assets.

“Keeping in view the material shared by the JIT report and the remarks by the honourable judges of the three-member bench of the Supreme Court, I believe that Maryam does not face an immediate threat. Rather, if the court believes that the evidence submitted is suggests perjury, the court may order registration of FIR and the matter could be sent to trail court,” the lawyer said.

However, the jurist said if the SC finds clear evidence of forgery, then SC can itself rule on Maryam’s fate. There is no need for trial if the evidence is enough to prove perjury,” he added.

Asked whether the PM’s daughter may face immediate disqualification while her career is yet to start, Ali Zafar said that there is no immediate disqualification for her as she is not a parliamentarian.

“Since she is not a parliamentarian, there is no immediate disqualification as Article 62/63 only applies to a public office holder. But if charged and proved guilty, she might face conviction. In such a case, she can’t contest elections. If she goes for election, she would be disqualified if convicted,” he added.

Asked what is the normal procedure in such trials under perjury, Ali Zafar said that in normal situations, if anyone submits forged documents before the court, the court orders registration of an FIR and sends the matter to trail court for conviction.