Sharif family rebuts allegations after Panama leaks

“Hussain Sharif and Hassan Sharif have been the residents of Saudi Arabia and United Kingdom (UK) respectively, for over two decades, and neither is a tax payer in Pakistan,” a spokesman for the Sharif family said in a statement. “They have been diligently filling their company reports tax returns in their legal and tax jurisdictions.”

The statement denied Maryam Nawaz as beneficiary or owner of any of the companies.

She has not received any income or financial benefits from the corporations owned by her brothers that warrant any tax disclosures or implications, it added.

Maryam Nawaz is merely a trustee of one of the corporations owned by Hussain Nawaz, the spokesman stated, which would only entitle her to distribute the assets to Hussain Nawaz’s family, if required.

The statement further read that Hussain Nawaz has unequivocally disclosed all corporations mentioned in Panama leaks, there sources of funding – primarily the sales of steel mill in Jeddah – and other financial facts in recently televised interviews.

All of the corporations owned by Hussain and Hassan Nawaz are legal and financially sound and that Panama leaks and ICIJ disclosed nothing new which was not already in public domain, it added.

The Sharif family regretted dissemination of factually wrong information and distortion of it by some elements in media and political rivals.