ISLAMABAD, May 25: Maryam Nawaz told the accountability court on Friday that the trust deeds related to the offshore companies Nielsen and Nescoll were original but the Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had deliberately declared them false in order to name her and her husband Captain Safdar in the Avenfield properties reference.
Maryam continued her testimony in the reference for a second consecutive day today under Section 342 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and pointed out what she said were several flaws in the way the trust deeds were examined.
At the outset, PML-N quaid Nawaz Sharif’s daughter confirmed the statements her brother Hussain had made in interviews given to some media outlets, and said that he was the real beneficial owner of the British Virgin Islands offshore companies Nielsen and Nescoll, which held the Avenfield apartments.
Maryam testified that she had “produced two declarations of trust deeds certified by the notary public as true and exact copies of original”.
Regarding the engagement of the services of forensic expert Robert M. Radley – who in his report stated that the trust deeds were false and fabricated – she said that the Supreme Court, in its order of April 20, “never directed the JIT to make me and my husband a part of its investigation”.
“The JIT decided on its own – without any reference of an SC order – to procure the so-called expert opinion on the trust deeds with mala fide intentions.”
Maryam further said that the forensic expert was engaged by Akhtar Riaz Raja, who happened to be a first cousin of JIT head Wajid Zia. There is no plausible reason as to why Radley’s services were engaged through Raja when the said expert could have been engaged by the JIT through the Foreign Office as Zia had admitted during cross-examination, Maryam said, adding, “In fact, services were engaged through Raja to procure an utterly false and manipulated report which suits the designs of the JIT – to implicate me and my husband in the case.”
Regarding the use of Calibri font – which, according to Radley, was not commercially available in February 2006 when the trust deed was signed – Maryam testified that Radley “during his cross-examination admitted that there was a pre-release of Window Vista Beta-1 version, which was available in April 2005, with subsequent versions in September and October 2005.”
During her testimony, Maryam also said that her grandfather Mian Muhammad Sharif looked after the entire family, provided them expenses and even fixed pocket money for each family member.-Agencies
