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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to attend the National Assembly session on Friday where he is expected to respond to the queries raised by the opposition parties over Panama leaks, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid informed the lower house on Tuesday.
"Nawaz Sharif will attend the session on Friday and will also respond to the queries raised by the opposition," the minister announced.
Rashid informed the protesting opposition members that the premier cannot attend the session before Friday "since he is busy meeting high-ups of national security institutions".
The information minister's statement, however, did not stop the opposition members from staging a walkout from the lower house for the second consecutive day.
Related: Opposition to boycott both houses until PM returns to parliament
Before leaving the house, leader of the opposition in National Assembly, Khursheed Shah maintained that the opposition will attend the session on Friday with the prime minister.
Senate seeks PM's appearance
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani has demanded that Nawaz sharif, as a member of parliament, should also appear in the Senate.
Reacting to leader of opposition in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan's statement that the prime minister will appear in National Assembly on Friday, Rabbani argued that the premier should also speak to the upper house.
Aitzaz, like his NA counterpart, announced that the opposition members will boycott the session until Nawaz Sharif's attendance and clarification over Panama papers scandal.
What the Panama Papers reveal about Sharif family
The data from the Panama Papers, available on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — one of around 100 news organisations and 300 journalists that worked on mining the data simultaneously — also reveals the offshore holdings of members of Prime Minister Sharif’s family.
Maryam is described as “the owner of British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, incorporated in 1994 and 1993”.
On one of the documents released by ICIJ, the address listed for Nielsen Enterprises is Saroor Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The document, dated June 2012, describes Maryam Nawaz as the ‘beneficial owner’.
According to ICIJ, “Hussain and Maryam signed a document dated June 2007 that was part of a series of transactions in which Deutsche Bank Geneva lent up to $13.8 million to Nescoll, Nielsen and another company, with their London properties as collateral.”
In July 2014, the two companies were transferred to another agent.
Hasan Nawaz Sharif is described as “the sole director of Hangon Property Holdings Limited incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in February 2007, which acquired Liberia-based firm Cascon Holdings Establishment Limited for about $11.2 million in August 2007”.
