Wajid Zia says letter from Qatari royal seems to be part of a 'fictional myth'
The Panamagate joint investigation team (JIT) head and the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) key witness in the Flagship Investment reference, Wajid Zia, on Thursday claimed that "we [the JIT] believed the letter from Qatari royal Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani seemed to be a fictional myth than fact".
While recording his statement in court, Zia said that the Qatari prince tried to use delaying tactics when the JIT asked him to record a formal statement about his letter.
"Later, he asked for assurances that he would not be produced in any Pakistani court," Zia added. He also told the court that the Qatari royal had initially even refused to record a statement at all.
Explaining how he came to the conclusion that the Qatari letter and the documents of transaction with the Qatari prince were fake, Zia said that Hussain Nawaz had told the JIT that he had showed the documents of the settlement with the Qataris to his brother, Hassan Nawaz.
"Hassan Nawaz, on the other hand, denied ever seeing these documents," Zia said in his statement.
"The JIT came to the conclusion that these documents were fake, and were created to fill a gap in the money trail," he added.
Objecting to this, Sharifs' lawyer Khawaja Haris said that Wajid Zia's personal opinion was not acceptable testimony.
Concluding his statement in court, Zia said that Hassan Nawaz had failed to explain the means through which Flagship Investment and other companies were formed.
"Hassan Nawaz provided funds from unidentified sources in the form of loans to these companies," Zia added.
He told the court that the JIT had taken a look at the financial statements of the companies formed under Flagship Investment and all of these financial details of the properties are to be found in Volume 7 of the JIT report.
According to the charge-sheet against the former premier, Sharif had told the JIT that he was a shareholder in 15 companies, including Flagship Investments, Hartstone Properties, Que Holdings, Quint Eaton Place 2, Quint Saloane, Quaint, Flagship Securities, Quint Gloucester Place, Quint Paddington, Flagship Developments, Alanna Services (BVI), Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron, Ansbacher, Coomber and Capital FZE, Dubai.
Sharif was indicted in the corruption case last year.
