Qatar not involved in Panamagate trial in Pakistan, says envoy

Qatar's Ambassador to Pakistan Saqr bin Mubarak Al Mansouri has said the government of the emirate was not involved in the Panamagate issue.

Mansouri, in a short video clip released by Aaj News for their show Rooh Barooh, added that Panamagate was an internal matter of Pakistan.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, in a series of tweets, termed the letter by the Qatari royal as "fake".

He added that the "Qatari government is embarrassed by this fake letter written by an acknowledged business partner of Sharifs".

Khan further claimed in his tweets that the letter from Sharif's business partner enabled him to clinch a Pakistani Rs 200 billion Port Qasim deal, among "other largesse".

During the Panamagate hearings in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the defence counsel for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif submitted two letters on the letterhead of Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani, the emir of Qatar from 2007 to 2013.

The second letter was submitted on January 26 and like the first, which was submitted in court last November, was marked private, confidential and not to be disclosed to any party, except for the benefit of the courts of Pakistan.

In the letter, Al-Thani said that Sharif's father, Mian Mohammad Sharif, made an investment of approximately 12 million dirhams in the Al-Thani family's real estate business.

The second Qatari letter was also accompanied by transaction details and auditor's reports regarding the Gulf Steel Mills in Dubai and the Azizia Steel Mills in Jeddah.

--IANS

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