ISLAMABAD: The Panama Leaks hearing resumed on Tuesday headed by a five-member bench led by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.
In the last hearing, the bench had summoned the chairmen of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR). On Monday, the NAB chairman had submitted references related to the Sharif family regarding the Hudaibiya Paper Mills and Raiwind Estate cases in the Supreme Court. The aforementioned references were filed 17 years ago during the tenure of military dictator General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf.
According to reports in the media, during the proceedings on Tuesday, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa enquired about FBR’s role in offshore companies.
The chairman of FBR informed the court that he had contacted the Foreign Office regarding offshore companies named in the Panama Papers. He further said that he had sent a notice to 343 people in September 2016. Out of these 343 people, 92 individuals agreed to owning offshore companies, 52 refused ownership, while 39 were not Pakistani citizens.
To this the judges remarked that the Foreign Office was situated only 200 yards from the FBR office. Justice Azmat Saeed said, “It took the FBR six months to cover a distance of 200 yards.” He further questioned the FBR chairman about the reply he got from the Sharif family when he sent notices to them.
The FBR chairman replied that Maryam, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz had replied to the notice. Maryam had said she did not have any property abroad and neither did she mention being trustee to any property either.
