Daily Times

The letter from Qatari royal Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani seems to be a fictional myth than fact, Panamagate joint investigation team (JIT) head and the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) key witness in the Flagship Investment reference, Wajid Zia, said Thursday.

While recording his statement in the accountability court, Zia said the Qatari prince tried to use delaying tactics when the JIT asked him to record a formal statement about his letter, a private TV channel reported. “Later he asked for assurances that he would not be produced in any Pakistani court,” Zia said, and informed the court that the Qatari royal had initially even refused to record a statement at all.

“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, however, denied ever seeing these documents. The JIT came to the conclusion that these documents are fake and have been created just to fill a gap in the money trail,” Zia said while explaining how he came to the conclusion that the Qatari letter and the documents of transaction with the Qatari prince were fake. Objecting to this, Sharifs’ lawyer Khawaja Haris said that Zia’s personal opinion was not acceptable as a testimony. Concluding his statement in the 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,” he said, adding that the JIT had taken a look at the financial statements of the companies formed under the Flagship Investment and all of these financial details are there in Volume 7 of the JIT report.

Published in Daily Times, October 19^th 2018.