The No2 Zaman Park mystery

ISLAMABAD: Mystery surrounds who the actual owner of No 2 Zaman Park is after the Pandora Papers discovered that this Lahore address has been used by two offshore companies. Incidentally, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Lahore residence has the same address.

Lockgate Investments Ltd and Hawkfield Ltd share this address and the name mentioned as owner is that of Farid-ud-Din Khan, son of Saeed-ud-Din Khan. Both the companies are registered in Seychelles and are being operated by the same service provider who represents them through two directors in Seychelles: Mr. Andrés Maximino Sánchez and Mrs. Moira Itzel Guevara Mc Alman. For Hawkfield Ltd, a power of attorney in the name of Farid-ud-Din was also found in the record and was required to obtain a judgment on behalf of the company from the Queens Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales in case number HQ09X03008.

Information about offshore companies and their beneficial owners vary from case to case in the files shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and examined by The News. In certain cases, details of the companies, their operations, the assets they hold, and their values and bank accounts are mentioned. For these two companies, however, only basic information is available.

ICIJ wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan for his comments on this discovery. In response, his SAPM Shehbaz Gill said that the PM doesn’t have any connection with the companies or individuals mentioned. There are two main entrances to Zaman Park, he explained. One is from the Canal Road and the other from Sundas Road. There are duplicate numbers for the residences and the prime minister’s house is number 2 from the Canal Road side while the residence of the individual named is also number 2 but from Sundas Road, he said. The houses are completely separate from each other and not even adjacent to each other. He further clarified that Farid is not ‘directly’ related to the PM. According to another source, he is a distant relative of the PM from his maternal side.

The News contacted Farid-ud-Din who repeated what Gill had said about the addresses. Farid added that Lockgate Investments was his company that he set it up when he was a UK resident. The other company, Hawkfield, belonged to his friend who appointed him attorney at one point. Thus, the correspondence that occurred was in that context, he said. —Umar Cheema