Panama case: Report to be challenged

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s team has finalised a draft petition to challenge the finding of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in the Panama leaks scandal, officials said.

The Sharif family, accused of corruption, has raised various objections over JIT report for its findings without using testified documents and the sources. The draft also alleges biased attitude of the JIT members towards the Sharif family.

Officials said the draft will be discussed with Prime Minister Sharif before filing in the Supreme Court this week.

The petition to challenge JIT report will be filed by the four-member legal team headed by Khawaja Haris. It will be prayed before the court to decide over this plea before any further action in the light of JIT report.

The Supreme Court will resume hearing of the Panama Papers case on Monday (today). The three-member implementation bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan will hear the case.

Earlier, the JIT, formed to probe the case, submitted its report before the bench last week. The Panama Papers case has now entered what may likely be its final round.

Following the JIT report’s submission, the special bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, issued notices to the parties to submit their responses.

The petitioners include Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Jamaat-e-Isami head Sirajul Haq while the respondents include the Prime Minister, his family members, and several government officials and departments.

Since the last hearing a week ago, following which the JIT report became public, the opposition parties stand near-unanimous in their demand for the Prime Minister to resign whereas the PM, doubting the report’s veracity, has vowed to stay in office ‘till the end.’

Hearing the Panama Papers case since last year, a five-judge Supreme Court bench had delivered its much-anticipated verdict in the case on April 20.

In a 3-2 split decision, the majority judges determined that the available evidence was insufficient to disqualify the Prime Minister outright and directed for the formation of a JIT to investigate the case and collect evidence, if any, showing that ‘Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif or any of his dependents or benamidars (nameless) owns, possesses or acquired assets or any interest therein disproportionate to their known means of income.’