The Broadsheet saga.

The Broadsheet saga, and its intriguing history over the past two decades, has taken Pakistan's judicio-polity by storm. No one is really sure-at least at this stage-what precisely transpired in the contractual relationship between the relevant parties, or how its settlement and subsequent litigation was pursued by the representatives of our State and NAB authorities. The only thing we know for sure is that the entire arrangement has resulted in financial and reputational damage to the State of Pakistan, without recovering any of the 'looted wealth'-for which the arrangement was entered into.

Parsing through the myriad of relevant media reporting concerning (undisclosed) settlement agreements as well as (publicly available) foreign judgments, let us attempt to make sense of the facts and circumstances that have resulted in the Broadsheet fiasco.

Per the available record, Broadsheet LLC, an entity based in the Isle of Man (IoM), along with another company, International Asset Recovery Ltd (IAR), was hired by NAB in June 2000-during General (R) Musharraf's regime-to trace 'hidden' assets of 200 Pakistanis, including former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former President Asif Zardari, in foreign jurisdictions. Specifically, NAB signed Asset Recovery Agreements (ARAs) with Broadsheet to investigate, inter alia, the Sharif family, whereas IAR, led by Kaveh Moussavi, was tasked to investigate the Bhutto family assets. Per the terms of the ARAs, these companies were entitled to receive 20 percent of the 'amount available to be transferred'. Subsequently, in 2003, NAB terminated the ARAs with Broadsheet and IAR, on the grounds of material (precontract) misrepresentation and/or fundamental breaches of the said agreements. And, as could be expected, the termination resulted in litigation between the parties.

In this regard, relevant documentation reveals that Broadsheet was established by a Colorado businessman, one Mr Jerry James; in 2005, the company faced liquidation proceedings in the Isle of Man, as a result of which it was dissolved, and subsequently revived through injection of money by its sponsors. While Broadsheet was facing liquidation proceedings in the Isle of Man, Mr James established a separate Colorado-based company, with the same name (Broadsheet LLC). In 2008, this Colorado-based entity, which was not party to the original ARAs with NAB and the State of Pakistan, was used to negotiate an agreement with NAB, to settle all claims...