Interesting coincidence about name and DoB of PPP chief

ISLAMABAD: UK government’s official website of its 'Companies House' shows one person with the name ‘Asif Zardari’ as “British Citizen” on a document dated September 1, 2013 and interestingly the date and month of the birth of the said person is July 26 which is also that of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari. Asif Ali Zardari remained President of Pakistan from September 9, 2008 to September 8, 2013.

Official UK government record shows that a company with the name ‘STATMYWEB Limited’ was registered with Registrar of Companies, England and Wales on February 18, 2013 by one Shahida Mahmood as the only director of the company. However, one person with the name “Asif Zardari” was appointed as director of the company on September 1, 2013 as the initial director Shahida Mahmood resigned after a few months on February 2, 2014 leaving the said person “Asif Zardari” as the only director of the company, the official documents of Companies House UK available with The News show.

According to this official record, the company STATMYWEB was dissolved in the same year on November 4, 2014. The date of birth of this person ‘Asif Zardari’ is given as July 26, 1958 and his nationality is shown as ‘British’. Coincidently, the date of birth of Pakistani politician and PPP chief Asif Ali Zardari, according to his documents in Pakistan, is July 26, 1955.

According to experts of matters relating to companies in UK, the nationality of a person as mentioned in the record of ‘Companies House UK’ cannot be wrong but there is a possibility that it is not updated if the concerned person has changed or surrendered his nationality and hasn’t intimated Companies House on this count. “If a nationality is mentioned against the name of a person in official record of UK government’s Companies House, it means he/she either holds that nationality at present or had possessed that nationality in the past and later surrendered,” a lawyer who does not want to be quoted told The News.

Certificate of incorporation in the Companies House record reads; “A private limited company (Company No 8407411). The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales, hereby certifies that STATMYWEB LTD is this day incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 as a private company and that the company is limited by shares, and the situation of its registered office is in England and Wales given at Companies House, Cardiff, on February 18, 2013.”

According to Companies House UK, initially company had only one director Shahida Mehmood with following details; Type- Person, Full forname(s)- Shahida, Surname- Mahmood, Service Address- 1/1, 260 Aikenhead Road, Glasgow, Scotland, G42 0QJ, Country/State usually resident- United Kingdom, Date of Birth- May 14, 1976, Nationality- British, Occupation- Entrepreneur, Consent to Act- Y, Date Authorised- February 18, 2013, Authenticated- Yes. Agent Name- 4 Business, Agent’s Address- 3rd Floor, 14 Hanover Street, Hanover Square, London, England, W1S 1YH. Appointed on February 18, 2013, resigned on February 2, 2014, Nationality- British, Occupation- Entrepreneur.

According to the ‘Appointment of Director’ document, details under heading “New Appointment Details”, Date of Appointment- September 01, 2013, Name - Mr Asif Zardari, Consent to Act- Yes, Service Address- 40 Great Central Street, Leicester, England, LE1 4JT, Country/State usually Resident- England, Date of Birth- July 26, 1958, Nationality- British, Occupation- Businessman. This intimation was received by the Companies House UK for electronic filing on April 2, 2014.

According to another Companies House UK document titled “Termination” Shahida Mehmood was terminated (Resigned) as director of the company STATMYWEB on February 2, 2014. This intimation was received by the Companies House UK for filing in electronic format on May 14, 2014.

On July 22, 2014, Registrar of Companies served a three-month notice of dissolution to the STATMYWEB LIMITED. And under a ‘Notification of Dissolution’ of Companies House UK dated November 4, 2014 the company was dissolved.

No filings of “Accounts” and “Confirmation Statement/Annual Returns” are available for this company with the Companies House UK for the company STATMYWEB.

The News tried to reach PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar to know his comments about this interesting coincidence of almost similar names and date of births, but he didn’t respond to the queries.