Joint investigation team head on Panama Papers case, Wajid Zia, Thursday informed the accountability court that there were contradictions in the letters of the Qatari prince while associated documents were not filed to prove their contents in Avenfield properties corruption reference. He, however, confirmed the prince endorsed the contents of his letters sent to the Supreme Court.

In Wednesday’s hearing at the accountability court regarding ownership of Avenfield properties, Zia said JIT had offered Qatari Prince Hamad bin Jassim to record his statement before JIT in Doha (Qatar). Since members of JIT did not agree to take statement of Jassim in Qatar, he was offered to record his statement at Pakistan Embassy in Doha, Qatar.

The counsel for Nawaz Sharif cross-examined the JIT head who informed the court that the Qatari prince dispatched three letters to JIT. The first letter was received on May 25, 2017, the second on June 11 and the third on June 26, 2017. In his letters, Hamad bin Jassim confirmed the contents of both the letters presented in the apex court. In his first letter, Jassim stated he would not appear before JIT as he has already testified that the contents of the letters presented on his behalf in the Supreme Court of Pakistan are correct and doesn’t think it necessary to appear before JIT for confirmation of his letters’ contents. In his second letter, the Qatari prince offered the JIT members to record his statement by visiting Qatar.

After differences among the JIT members on visiting Qatar to record the statement of Jassim, the letters were dispatched to Panama implementation bench of the Supreme Court to seek guidance, but honourable judges of the bench didn’t give any categorical reply to JIT. However, the registrar office of the apex court, through a phone call, replied the JIT can autonomously hold investigations.