Sharifs give JIT more London apartments money trail papers

ISLAMABAD: The Sharif family submitted some more documents to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in favour of the money trail of the London Mayfair apartments that also included a cheque worth SR20.63 million of Al-Azizia Steel Company Limited, sources told The News here on Saturday. 

“The cheque worth SR20.63 million (dated March 22, 2005) of Al-Azizia Steel Company and documents related to the business partnership between the Sharif family and the Al-Thani family in Dubai have been submitted to the JIT to prove authenticity of the money trail of the London Mayfair apartments,” the sources said.  

According to the documents submitted to the JIT, Mian Muhammad Sharif, father of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had arranged 5.41 million dollar between 2001 and 2003 to invest in the Al-Azizia Steel Company Limited and these funds were transferred by the Al-Thani family at his personal request,” the documents said. 

“This fact was related to Hussain Nawaz by Sheikh Hamad's representative Nasir Khamis at the time of an overall settlement in late 2005. The equity injected by Mian Muhammad Sharif, along with loans from the financial institutions, were utilised to set up the Al-Azizia Steel Manufacturing Plant near Makkah, Saudi Arabia,” the documents said.

The documents said Mian Aziz oversaw the refurbishment of the old steel manufacturing machinery and employed engineering staff from Ittefaq Foundries in Lahore at the Al-Azizia Steel Company, adding: "The Saudi government, out of regard for the efforts of Mian Muhammad Sharif, allowed the conversion of the agricultural land for industrial use, where the Azizia steel plant was set up."

They said the steel business was later sold in 2005 for a total consideration of over 63 million Saudi riyals. In 2005, Sheikh Hamad offered to settle Mian Sharif's outstanding investment with the Al-Thani family. 

Subsequently, the representatives of both met in Jeddah, where it was agreed that a cumulative return based on the London Inter Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR) as well as other established international lending rates from 1980 onwards, would be considered payable to the Al-Thani family, along with the principal amount of 3.257 million dollar. 

The documents further showed that Hussain Nawaz was informed by the Al-Thani family representative that a sum of 08 million dollar was paid during the year 2000 to the Al-Towfeek Company for investment on the instructions of Mian Muhammad Sharif, and the same amount was determined payable to him by the Al-Thani family. 

The sources said new documents submitted to the JIT reiterated the stance of the Sharif family members that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had nothing to do with all the business set-up in Saudi Arabia or other countries after their forced exile by the Musharraf regime.

Meanwhile, the JIT members after their meeting on Saturday in which they reviewed documents and inquiry reports mostly concentrated on draft of the final report that would be submitted to the Supreme Court bench on July 10.

The sources said Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) additional director general Wajid Zia who heads the JIT is supervising the whole work of writing the final report that would be completed today (Sunday), adding "The JIT members discussed the issue of recording of statement of Qatari Prince Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani and also reviewed his latest letter in which he refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as well as the JIT."