ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son, Hussain Nawaz, will appear before the joint investigation team (JIT) on Thursday (today) for the third time since May 28 — this time to defend his London properties and to present the documents the JIT has sought regarding the Jeddah and Dubai factories his family owned.

Sources privy to the JIT told Dawn that after grilling Mr Nawaz for over five hours on May 30, the six-member investigation team directed him to produce certain documents in support of his claims regarding the legal purchase of four flats in Park Lane, London.

According to the sources, the premier’s son is likely to submit records related to the establishment, sale and purchase of Al-Azizia Steel Mills in Saudi Arabia, Gulf Steel Mills in the United Arab Emirates, and further investments in the steel and real estate sectors in the United Kingdom and Qatar. The sources said that Mr Nawaz would also produce the letter from Qatri prince Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani.

In his letter, the Qatari prince claims that Hussain Nawaz’s grandfather had invested 12 million dirhams in the Al-Thani family’s business in the 1980s, which eventually led him to acquire four Park Lane flats in the UK.

The sources said that an affidavit from Mr Nawaz’s uncle Tariq Shafi, which supports Mr Nawaz’s claims regarding the transfer of London flats, was already with the JIT.

The documents Mr Nawaz is likely to submit before the JIT include papers related to the grant of land issued by the Dubai Municipality, the land rent agreement for Gulf Steel Mills, partnership agreements, the incorporation certificate of offshore companies Nescoll and Nielsen, a trust deed that shows Maryam Nawaz as the trustee, and other documents related to the Jeddah factory, said the sources.

On May 30, Mr Nawaz emerged from the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) following a five-hour-long interrogation and felt certain in remarks to the media that the investigation would exonerate the Sharif family from all charges.

However, he said that he would produce only those documents which he was legally bound to submit before the JIT, adding that he would appear before the team again, if summoned.

The sources said that the prime minister’s youngest son, Hassan Nawaz, had also arrived in Pakistan and would appear before the JIT soon. He had already been summoned by the JIT.

According to them, the JIT is expected to quiz Hassan Nawaz about his interview telecast on the BBC, in which he claimed that he had been a student in London in 1999 with no income of his own, but then started his own company in London named Flagship Investments Limited on April 12, 2001.

The Supreme Court has directed members of the JIT, headed by Wajid Zia, an additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency, to investigate: “how Gulf Steel Mills came into being; what led to its sale; what happened to its liabilities…how did they reach Jeddah, Qatar and the UK; whether Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, in view of their tender ages, had the means in the early nineties, to possess and purchase the flats; whether the sudden appearance of letters from Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani was a myth or reality… who, in fact, was the real and beneficial owner of M/s Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, how the Hill Metal Establishment came into existence; where the money for Flagship Investment Limited and other companies set up or taken over by the son of the PM came from, where the working capital for such companies come from, and where did the huge sums, running into millions, gifted by respondent Hussain Nawaz to Nawaz Sharif drop in from.”

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2017