ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan’s latest tweets about some old financial documents have renewed the war of words between the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI over the Avenfield properties reference.

The PTI chairman tweeted about the documents two days after the accountability court of Islamabad recorded the evidence of star prosecution witness in the reference, Wajid Zia, and fixed March 15 for the next hearing when he would be cross-examined.

Mr Zia headed the Joint Inves­tigation Team (JIT) comprising officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which had been constituted by the Supreme Court to probe Panama Papers allegations against the Sharif family.

Imran tweets old ‘evidence’ before cross-examination of JIT head

The JIT submitted its report on July 10, 2017 to the SC which later disqualified the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif with a directive to NAB to file three references against him and one against the then finance minister Ishaq Dar.

Mr Khan on Saturday posted a document of July 4, 2017 of the Financial Investigation Agency of British Virgin Island (BVI) that the JIT had submitted to the court along with its report, and tweeted: “These BVI FIA documents conclusively prove Maryam Nawaz beneficial owner of the companies that own the Mayfair apartments worth billions of rupees. As she had no source of income, the money was stolen from Pakistan and laundered by Nawaz Sharif in Maryam’s name.”

The other documents tweeted by the PTI chief were the letters of Mossac Fonesca, the Panamanian law firm, dated June 22, 2012. Maryam Safdar was the beneficial owner of the offshore companies which owned the London properties, he said, adding that the documents “expose the lies of the Sharifs from the Qatari letter to Trust deeds to the Calibri font.”

In yet another tweet, Mr Khan referred to an interview aired on a private television on Nov 8, 2011 and commented: “Brazen lies of Maryam Nawaz simply to protect family properties because they were acquired with corruption money.”

Responding to the allegations, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marryium Aurangzeb said it appeared that Mr Khan suffered from Maryam Nawaz phobia. He was continuously under fear because of her activities on the social media and conventions.

“These tweets reflected Imran Khan’s Maryam Nawaz phobia,” she added.

Perhaps this was the reason the PTI chief tweeted about these (old) documents without even noticing the dates of the respective letters, she said. She added that the star witness, Wajiz Zia, who had already testified before the court, would be cross-examined next week. “Zia doesn’t know what he will face during the upcoming cross-examination,” she added.

Regarding the documents tweeted by Mr Khan, the state minister for information said: “These letters have already been examined by the JIT and NAB during the course of investigation. Pakistanis know the truth.”

She said Mr Zia, the JIT head, had already admitted before the accountability court that Volume X of the JIT report had become irrelevant.

Countering Ms Aurangzeb’s response, PTI’s information secretary Fawad Chaudhry tweeted his recorded statement. He called Maryam Nawaz ‘a liar’ and the minister ‘her staff officer’. He said people were waiting for the evidence for a long time.

“In case Sharif family would fail to bring any evidence in their defence, they will land in Adiala Jail,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2018