ISLAMABAD: The federal government would take ‘offensive’ stance during the investigation into the Panama Papers, offshore companies and written off loans with the focus on the fact that not a single rupee was transferred from Pakistan to foreign country by any member of the Sharif family whether it is establishment of factory in Dubai in 1980 by Mian Muhammad Sharif or setting up steel mills in Jeddah in 2000 or buying flats in London in 2006, sources told The News here on Thursday.
“The legal brains will establish the fact during the investigation through documentary evidence that no member of the Sharif family ever transferred even a singly rupee to any foreign country to set up business concern,” the sources said.
The sources said the ruling party would not only provide evidence to refute the opposition parties' claim regarding transfer of money abroad to set up property and mill but also come up ‘offensive’ against some key political figures with regard to written-off loans and offshore companies.
The sources said major chunk of the loans were written off during the era of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf amounting to Rs125 billion, and no major figure from the ruling party was among the beneficiaries as all of them were being victimised on the basis of their political affiliations.
The official record showed that the banks had written off some Rs125 billion worth of loans during six years—2000 to 2006—against Rs30 billion written-off during 1985-1999 and larger number of loans were written off under the State Bank of Pakistan’s circular No 29/2002 of which major beneficiaries were politicians and industrialists.
The sources said despite the fact that the Sharif family was forced for ‘engineered default’ because the Sharif family could not pay back its loans because the banks, under pressure from the PPP-government, refused to provide them with additional finance facilities to service their loans.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Sharif family sued the public sector banks to the tune of Rs10 billion in damages for allegedly ‘engineering’ their bank loan default.
The sources said the government circles would try their best to come down hard on those politicians who were major beneficiaries of the schemes especially launched in the Musharraf era to extend financial gains to its political supporters.
According to the data presented in the Supreme Court, nationalised, commercialised and development financial institutions have written off Rs280.90 billion loans from the year 1971 to 2010 for 912,259 borrowers, waiving off the principal amount of Rs123.784 billion, mark-up amount of Rs56.11 billion and other Rs101.005 billion.
The official record showed that the banks and the financial institutions wrote off a staggering amount of over Rs30 billion during the governments of Muhammad Khan Junejo, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. During the two terms when Benazir Bhutto was in power, a total of Rs7.23 billion loans were written off, constituting 24.2 percent of the total written-off loans.
When contacted, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Senator Mushahidullah Khan told The News that they would prove with undeniable evidence that no member of the Sharif family has ever transferred even a singly rupee from Pakistan to any foreign country for investment.
“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his speech in the National Assembly never said that his father transferred money to Dubai to set up a factory in 1980. Those who are leveling baseless allegations will find no place to hide when the truth will come out to the people,” he said.
He claimed that since the government said all those who wrote off loans illegally and established offshore companies abroad should be investigated, many of the key political figures are trying to halt the way of investigation.
“Investigation into the PanamaLeaks, offshore companies and write off loans should be held and no one should be spared,” he said. Senator Mushahidullah Khan said when the steel mill was established by the Sharif family in Jeddah in 2000, all money was generated through legal sources in Saudi Arabia, adding “When the Sharif family sold out steel mill then flats in London were bought in 2006 through this money.”
He said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan never bothered to disclose that he had an offshore company in London but when a news story was published in media then he immediately came up with admission in this respect.
