ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has narrowly escaped disqualification over charges of corruption. The country’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the allegations against him and family in the Panama Papers case, that claimed they managed to transfer money to Qatar.
The Panama Papers, a whopping 11.5 million leaked documents detailing offshore entities and client information, exposed financial irregularities committed by several people across the world. Business dealings of Sharif’s family and offshore accounts being held by three of his children also featured in the leaked documents. Sharif and his family have dismissed the claims as politically motivated.
Contrary to the expectations of Sharif’s political opponents, that includes cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, the Supreme court did not disqualify the premier.
The final verdict was split 3-2 among the five-judge bench, with two dissenting notes in the judgement by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed. The two judges ruled against Sharif, saying he should be disqualified, whereas the other three were in favor of a JIT tasking it to interrogate the Prime Minister and his two sons and complete investigations within two months time.
“A JIT should be formed in a week comprising officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the State Bank of Pakistan, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence (MI),” Supreme Court said in its judgement. The JIT will present its report before the bench after every two weeks and can summon anybody for investigation.
Sharif and his ruling party PML-N breathed a collective sigh of relief, as the fear of an ‘extreme verdict’ — the premier’s ouster — dissolved and gave way to celebrations. Political workers of Sharif’s ruling PML-N took to roads and streets across the country to celebrate what they called a ‘landmark decision’ that backed the Prime Minister’s stance. Khawja Asif, federal Minister for Defense and a close aid of Sharif hailed the decision as historic.
“We have been vindicated as the Prime Minister had last year asked to set up a probe commission to investigate Panama leaks scandal,” Khawaja Asif told The New Indian Express. Sharif and his London-based son have welcomed the judgement and vowed to appear before the JIT, sources told Express.