The End | Panama papers led to Sharif's resignation

Pakistani Prime Minister

 Removed From Office Over

 Panama Papers Case

On the 20th  April 2017, Maryam Safdar tweet pictures of joy. She resolved the mood in the arm of her father, the faces relieved. The simple message "Celebrations", celebrations. The daughter of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was happy with her father that he had once again come away. Three of the five constitutional judges had decided on this day that there was not sufficient evidence that the Premier had lied or made false statements about his income.

The ruling could have been the end of a scandal that began in April 2016 with the publication of the Panama Papers . But the jubilation was premature. At the same time, the Constitutional Court set up an investigation commission (JIT), which once again examined all allegations against the family. Two weeks ago, she presented a 256 page report. And this was the beginning of the last act in this drama, which reached a new climax on Friday with the imprisonment of the Prime Minister. 

In the course of the Panama Papers revelations, Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigned, along with several ministers in various countries as well as a member of the Fifa Ethics Committee. 

So now Nawaz Sharif. He himself appeared in the Panama Papers, three of his four children: Hassan and Hussain as well as his daughter Maryam. The three are named in the Panama Papers as owners or directors of various mailbox companies based in the tax paradise of the British Virgin Islands. The Sharif family has been under the influence of corruption, tax evasion and money laundering for many years.

Sharif's daughter Maryam is considered to be the Crown Princess of the Sharif clan. All the harder they met the Panama-Papers revelations. According to the documents of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, she was the owner of Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, founded in 1994 and 1993. The companies included luxury properties in London. Politicians, who are often subject to stricter rules when setting up a company, often employ family members, such as their children. Maryam Safdar, who is the surname of her husband, was only 20 and 21 years old when the two companies were founded on the Jungferninseln . To this day it is not clear how the Sharif family bought their luxury apartments in London and where the millions came from.

Maryam Safdar had first claimed that she was only a trustee of the two mailbox companies Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, before the Supreme Court of Pakistan's investigation committee . She presented documents for proof, but obviously these were counterfeits. The papers were dated February 2006 and - in this case decisive - was written with the Microsoft font Calibri. However, Calibri was only available to end customers in 2007 . The bold attempt to mislead the public and the public quickly had a name: Fontgate. Based on Watergate, the American century scandal. The opposition joked and joked, alluding to the font, But neither Fontgate nor the luxury properties in London are now the main argument for the decision of the Constitutional Court to remove Nawaz Sharif from his office. On the contrary, the ruling of the judges stated that Sharif, as a board member of another mailbox company called "Capital FZE", had received income which he had not registered. To this end, he would have been obliged as a deputy under the electoral law. While Sharif's attorneys argued that he had only had a "ceremonial" task in this company and never fulfilled an actual activity, they did not deny that he had received money. The court evaluated the initially concealed income as a false statement.

Above all, the false information about his finances has brought Sharif to his office, not the documents from the Panama Papers. Without the Panama Papers, however, it would never have come so far. It was only through the reports on the mailbox companies of his children that mass protestations in Pakistan, demands for resignation, pressure on the Constitutional Court came to an investigation commission. Their report was public two weeks ago, it was an attack on the premier and his daughter Maryam Safdar and the prelude to the dismantling of the Sharif clan. The investigators came to the conclusion that Sharif "is in possession of a wealth that goes beyond his well-known sources of income." And that the proof of family income had a "crass gap". Sharif's daughter, Maryam, accused the Commission of concealing the property of luxury real estate in London. As the Panama Papers suggested. It was "undoubtedly proved" that Maryam Safdar was the owner of the real estate. With regard to the Fontgate documents, it is said that the manifest falsification is a criminal offense.

That is why the "National Accountability Office" should charge against them, their father, their brothers Hassan and Hussain, as well as their husband, Muhammad Safdar, within six weeks. The basis for the prosecution is the report of the Investigation Commission, which refers to the real estate disclosed by the Panama Papers.

For Nawaz Sharif, the verdict could mean the end of his political career. For the Constitutional Court prohibited him from exercising political positions in Pakistan for his lifetime. Sharif himself declared that he had resigned. He has "strong reservations" against the decision and will "use all possibilities of the Constitution and the right". General Prosecutor Ashtar Ausaf Ali said, however, that Sharif could not appeal. 

Maryam Nawaz Sharif, wrote about the tweet after her father's legal defeat: "Today will pave the way for Nawaz Sharif's overwhelming victory in 2018. He will be unstoppable, God willing." Despite this, the last seems to be what is left of her father's political heritage.