ISLAMABAD: The government has rejected a German newspaper’s report containing four documents apparently showing Maryam Nawaz’s connection with the company that owns the Park Lane flats in London and claimed that a BBC report substantiated the government’s stance on the Panama Papers case.

“We reject this report (of German newspaper) as it is baseless,” prime minister’s adviser Mussaddiq Malik said at a press conference, along with MNA Daniyal Aziz of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, here on Monday.

German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung tweeted documents allegedly connecting PM Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz to the London property.

About the BBC report, Mr Malik said it had also created unrest in the country, but in fact it supported the government’s stance.

He said that the hearing on the Panamagate case had been continuing for three weeks but the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) could not provide even a single piece of evidence against the prime minister and his family.

Daniyal Aziz said time had come when Imran Khan should clarify his position in a case relating to offshore assets, tax evasion and money laundering. “Why is Imran not ready for ‘search’?” he asked.

He said Mr Khan was wasting precious time of the court despite the fact that his money laundering had been proved. Mr Aziz alleged that the PTI was being run on foreign funds.

PTI meeting

Presiding over a party meeting at his Banigala residence, the PTI chairman said the government had made an abortive attempt to reject the German newspaper’s report. “The prime minister was not ready to tell the nation about his black money.”

Mr Khan said that after the BBC report, the German newspaper’s report had removed all ambiguities in the Panama Papers case.

He said the entire government machinery was trying to protect Nawaz Sharif in the Panamagate case. “Instead of giving a befitting response to enemy India and its aggression, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has been engaged in verbal attacks against me,” Mr Khan said.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2017