Musharraf govt had disowned Rehman Malik’s report

ISLAMABAD: As PPP leader Senator Rehman Malik appears before the JIT probing Panama Papers case against the Sharif family today, Pervez Musharraf’s government, which was in search of anything against the Sharif family during the early days of the coup, had disowned Malik’s investigation against Nawaz Sharif and his family. 

Malik has been summoned by the JIT based upon his investigation report of the 90s. Though Rehman Malik’s report was not entertained by the courts on the basis of technical grounds, what has been written in it requires a thorough investigation because prima facie, it is a comprehensive report explaining the money trails of the Sharif family during the early 90s. Perhaps it is the only document which explains in detail how money was allegedly transferred to other countries by the members of Sharif family to purchase properties and establish businesses abroad.

In January 2000, when Pervez Musharraf was busy in cooking up references against the Sharifs, Rehman Malik’s investigation report was rejected in toto terming it an enquiry launched by Malik himself against the Sharifs.

The then FIA had informed the Interior Division that Rehman Malik had launched these inquiries on his own as there was no formal order of the inquiries against the Sharif family.

The letter titled, ‘Complaint against Mian Nawaz Sharif and his family by Rehman Malik, FIA former additional director general for their alleged involvement in corruption and money laundering.’ It says, “These issues are basically matters that were being probed by Rehman Malik himself. No formal enquiries or investigations had been launched by him in most of these matters.” Interior Division had written a letter to the FIA on November 2, 1999, seeking legal status of the inquiry and Rehman Malik’s complaint against Nawaz Sharif and his family and FIA’s then director had answered the letter on January 28, 2000.

Musharraf government later ordered fresh enquiries into various allegations against the Sharif family. It is worth mentioning here that Rehman Malik had sent an inquiry report to President Rafiq Tarar in 1998 seeking action against the then Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif for being allegedly involved in money laundering. Malik, who had emerged as one of the most powerful bureaucrats during Benazir Bhutto Shaheed’s second tenure, was dismissed from the FIA by the Sharif government in October 1998, shortly after he sent the inquiry report in question to President Rafiq Tarar.

Rehman Malik’s inquiry report was part of PTI’s petition against Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa had discussed the status of this report lamenting that no action was taken upon it. Justice Khosa during the course of hearing of Panama Papers case had observed that the report could not meet its logical conclusion as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) did not file an appeal against the Lahore High Court’s order to quash the reference against the Sharif family on technical grounds in 2014.