ISLAMABAD: The joint investigation team (JIT), tasked to probe Sharif family’s offshore assets, interrogated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s cousin Tariq Shafi for the second time on Sunday.
Shafi was driven to the Federal Judicial Academy in Islamabad – where the JIT Secretariat is – by Water and Power Minister Abid Sher Ali.
Speaking to reporters after his JIT appearance, Shafi said that he had been questioned regarding the Sharif family’s Gulf Steel Mills. He said that he had not been summoned by the JIT again, and that no new documents had been provided to the probe team. The ruling family has mentioned Shafi as the legal owner in all the official documents, business transactions and agreements since the establishment of Gulf Steel Mills in 1970s. Shafi previously appeared before the JIT on May 15 to record his statement. Sources said the JIT summoned members of Sharif family for the second time after investigators found contrast between statements recorded by them and the documents submitted by the relevant government departments.
Shafi, however, shunned a question on the JIT member’s attitude and left with State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali. In earlier appearance before the JIT, he had moved a complaint against the ‘misbehaviour’ of a few members of the investigative body.
The powerful six-member team tasked with probing the business dealings of the Sharif family is entering a crucial stage, with the investigation heading towards conclusion. The JIT was in the process of winding up the probe by next week, after which it would finish compiling the final investigation report by the second week of July before it is submitted to the apex court by the July 10 deadline.
On Saturday, the JIT in its meeting reviewed the documents pertaining to the business and tax records of the Sharif family that were submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The JIT has also summoned the prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, to appear before it on July 5, a move that the ruling party has termed as an ‘egoistic decision’, but has agreed to comply with the summons. Maryam will be the seventh family member summoned so far in connection with the ongoing probe into money laundering allegations.
Published in Daily Times, July 3rd, 2017.
