ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister Rehman Malik on Friday came into the spotlight again as he owned before the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the Panama Papers case an investigation report he had compiled as an FIA official about two decades ago on alleged money laundering by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members.

Mr Malik appeared before the JIT and shared details of the report with the six-member investigation team.

Later talking to journalists, he made it sound like after his testimony there was no room left for the Sharif family to escape the money laundering charges.

However, he said that he had told the JIT not to use the report and other evidence during the course of prosecution without seeking his prior consent.

“I am appearing before the JIT as a former additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and not in the capacity of a politician or former interior minister,” said Mr Malik before going inside the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) which houses the JIT secretariat.

Hands over two letters written by him to Tarar seeking action against Sharif on money laundering charges

Later, he disclosed the names of other FIA officials who had contributed to the investigation into the money laundering allegations against the Sharif family. The officials are: Ahmed Riaz Sheikh, former additional director general of the FIA known as a close friend of Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Zardari, Wasim Ahmed, Sajjad Haider, Mohammad Hanif, Basharat Shahzad, Kamran Attaullah, Javed Hassan, Ghulam Akhtar Jatoi, Shaukat Ali and Sanaullah.

He said that after the submission of the inquiry report, the then government had chargesheeted him along with Mr Sheikh, Mr Haider and Mr Sanaullah.

Mr Malik said that he had confirmed the contents of the report before the JIT and also handed it over two letters he had written to the then president Rafiq Tarar in September 1998, asking him to take action against Mr Sharif on money laundering charges.

He dispelled the impression that the PML-N government had removed him before submission of the report and said that his service as additional director general of the FIA was terminated in November 1998 whereas he had submitted the report in September that year.

Claiming that he was backed by the party leadership, Mr Malik said that he was there (at the JIT secretariat) with the permission of PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

He rejected the rumours of any ‘under the table’ deal between the PPP and the PML-N.

Instead, he said that it was a moment of pride for the PPP as had he exposed a decades-old money laundering scam involving the Sharif family. Without mentioning the name of former FIA official Inam Sehri, who has offered to share findings of an investigation he conducted against the Sharif family, Mr Malik said that the JIT would allow anyone who could assist the probe. If it is not possible for the witness to come to the country, the JIT may go abroad to record his statement.

Mr Malik said that he was ready to cooperate with the JIT in future as well.

In April 2012, 13 months before the May 2013 general elections, Mr Malik had held a press conference in Islamabad with a pile of files lying in front of him. He had claimed that he possessed documentary evidence of money laundering of the Sharif family and that he would file a reference in the National Accountability Bureau against the Sharif brothers, which he did not.

He had also asked the Supreme Court to take notice of financial bungling of the Sharifs and offered to appear in court with documents to prove his allegations.

The FIA report, already submitted in the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, alleged that Nawaz Sharif — during his tenure as Punjab finance minister (1984-85), Punjab chief minister (1985-90) and prime minister (1991-93 and 1996-1999) — had managed to acquire unparalleled industrial power.

The unprecedented power and wealth was amassed through evasion of taxes and import duty and other devious means such as kickbacks from illegal grants, privatisation of public property and money laundering, it alleged.

It alleged that Mr Sharif had amassed funds abroad in the form of money deposited in foreign banks and property, primarily in Switzerland and the UK.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2017