During his arguments, Bokhari also referred to documents purporting to show Maryam Nawaz’s involvement with Minerva Financial Services, as highlighted by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung in a tweet in January.
The question of Maryam Nawaz’s signatures
Maryam Nawaz’s counsel, Shahid Hamid, had argued earlier that the signatures attributed to Maryam Nawaz on the documents in question were fake. However, Bokhari maintained in his rebuttal that the documents were correct.
“You say that the documents with Maryam’s signature are correct, the Sharif family says they are fake,” Justice Sheikh Azmat remarked.
The court told the lawyer that the assistance of an expert should have been sought in light of reservations concerning the validity of the documents.
The court would have accepted the testimony of an expert, the bench said, with Justice Ijaz Afzal asking how the bench could accept documents without looking into their validity.
Justice Khosa said the bench would give equal weight to all documents submitted before it during the course of the hearings. However, he added that none of the documents submitted by the parties in the case had come from verifiable sources.
‘PM failed to act appropriately’
Bokhari’s rebuttal mentioned the speech delivered by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the National Assembly in May 2016 following the Panama Papers leaks.
He reiterated his stance that the premier had failed to speak the truth in the House and did not demonstrate honesty.
“How can such a person be the prime minister?” Bokhari asked.
He also asked why the prime minister had failed to send a notice to or act appropriately against Mossack Fonseca if the leaks against him and his family members were indeed inaccurate and not representative.
Bokhari pointed out that for a year, there had been no mention of the Qatari connection by the Sharif family, drawing the court’s attention to two letters submitted before the bench during the hearing of the case.
The letters had sought to show that the Sharif family’s various businesses and investments were made with the assistance of the Al Thani family, the ruling family of Qatar.

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