ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz Monday denied being the beneficial owner of London flats and companies. She was recording her statement in connection with hearing of Avenfield reference in an accountability court. She remarked that she never took any financial advantage from these companies. “I have nothing to do with 25% shares of Gulf Steel Mills, Al-Taufiq case, and settlement worth Rs 12 million.” She said that the Capital FZE documents did not concern her, adding that the documents were submitted with ‘despicable purposes’. As the hearing went under way, the PML-N leader said that the letters, which were used as evidence against Sharif family, could be made part of court records. The two letters she mentioned included the one submitted by Joint Investigation Team Head Wajid Zia on July 3, 2017, and the other by Mossack Fonseca on June 22, 2012. Referring to the JIT letter, she said that the way letter was sent to JIT was quite suspicious and not according to the law. “There is no truth in letter attained from the private firm.” Moreover, with regards to the Mossack Fonseca letter, she said that she was denied the right to cross-examine the witness who penned down the letter. “I was denied cross-examination so the contents of the letter could not be verified,” she said, adding that the court could not depend on the letter in a transparent trial. “There were no supporting documents attached to the letter.” Over this, the NAB prosecutor remarked that Maryam was free to summon the author of the letter before the court for cross-examination. To this, her legal counsel said that they would have to see if the witness could be summoned or not. “The documents presented by the prosecution could not be accepted as evidence. These documents are unrelated to indictment.” 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. Maryam had recorded her statement in 82 of the 128 questions asked by the court. At the last hearing on Friday, Maryam had remarked that the flats in London were the property of her brother Hussain Nawaz, adding that he was also the beneficial owner of British Virgin Islands offshore companies Nielsen and Nescoll. Maryam further shared that the report compiled by forensic expert Robert Radley could not be trusted “as it was contrary to the facts”. “We had submitted the trust deed to the Supreme Court, however, the apex court did not ask any question about the trust deed,” she remarked, adding that the JIT began an investigation on its own and “approached a so-called IT expert with ill-intent.” The entire process of engaging the IT expert and submitting him the documents was very suspicious, she asserted. “In reality, the services of Radley were employed to produce a fake report. The report was prepared to include mine and my husband’s name in the case,” she added. “This report was prepared on the basis of a scanned copy which is unacceptable,” she had said. Published in Daily Times, May 29th 2018.