Maryam says Hussain real beneficial owner of Nielsen, Nescoll

–Deposed PM daughter tells court JIT deliberately declared trust deeds fake to entrap her and Safdar in Avenfield case

–Says report compiled by forensic expert Robert Radley cannot be trusted as it is contrary to facts

ISLAMABAD: Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz on Friday told the accountability court that the trust deeds related to offshore companies Nielsen and Nescoll were authentic but the Panama Papers Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had intentionally declared them fake in order to entrap her and her husband Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar in the Avenfield properties reference.

Continuing her testimony in the reference for a second consecutive day, Maryam pointed out “several flaws” in the way the trust deeds were examined.

She confirmed the statements her brother Hussain Nawaz had made in interviews given to some media outlets, and said that he was the real beneficial owner of the British Virgin Islands offshore companies Nielsen and Nescoll, which held the Avenfield apartments. Maryam testified that she had “produced two declarations of trust deeds certified by the notary public as true and exact copies of original”.

Regarding the engagement of the services of forensic expert Robert M. Radley — who in his report stated that the trust deeds were false and fabricated — she said that the Supreme Court, in its order of April 20, “never directed the JIT to make me and my husband a part of its investigation”.

“The JIT decided on its own — without any reference of an SC order — to procure the so-called expert opinion on the trust deeds with mala fide intentions,” she said, adding that the forensic expert was engaged by Akhtar Riaz Raja, who is a first cousin of JIT head Wajid Zia. There is no plausible reason as to why Radley’s services were engaged through Raja when the expert could have been engaged by the JIT through the Foreign Office as Zia had admitted during cross-examination, Maryam said, adding, “In fact, services were engaged through Raja to procure an utterly false and manipulated report which suits the designs of the JIT — to implicate me and my husband in the case.”

Regarding the use of Calibri font — which, according to Radley, was not commercially available in February 2006 when the trust deed was signed — Maryam testified that Radley “during his cross-examination admitted that there was a pre-release of Window Vista Beta-1 version, which was available in April 2005, with subsequent versions in September and October 2005.”

During her testimony, Maryam also said that her grandfather Mian Muhammad Sharif looked after the entire family, provided them expenses and even fixed pocket money for each family member.

The Avenfield reference, pertaining to the Sharif family’s London properties, is among three filed against the Sharif family by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last year on the Supreme Court’s directives.

PREVIOUS HEARING:

On Thursday, Maryam had submitted in court that the report prepared by the JIT was “irrelevant” in the Avenfield properties reference, as she raised multiple objections against the JIT that had investigated her family’s business dealings at the behest of the Supreme Court.

She also termed the inclusion of two officials of intelligence agencies in JIT “inappropriate” and questioned the competence of the entire team.

When quizzed over the establishment, running and sale proceeds of Gulf Steel Mills, Maryam said that she was hardly one year old when the mill was established, adding that she had no information about the operations of the mill and how its shares were disposed of. She also claimed that she knew nothing about the statements of Tariq Shafi regarding the two agreements for the disposal of the shares of Gulf Steel Mills.

Maryam’s counsel Amjad Pervaiz suggested to the court that her answers could be “copied and pasted” in order to expedite the proceedings and not have the court typists rekey the same information — a request that was accepted by the judge.

Nawaz had his statement recorded earlier and had denied involvement in Capital FZE, dealings with the Qatari royal family, Dubai Steel Mills and the Avenfield properties.