Neither JIT report authentic, nor its probe fair: Sharif family lawyer
No probe can be carried out on the report, Khawaja Harris said.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Presenting arguments over Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in Supreme Court (SC), Sharif family lawyer Khawaja Harris said that neither JIT report was authentic nor its probe fair.
A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan resumed the hearing of Panama case during which Khawaja Harris said that JIT proceeded from the mandate as it was allowed to find answers of only thirteen questions but it included two more queries by its own.
No probe can be carried out on the report, he continued.
Responding to the counsel’s stance, the bench remarked that the case was forwarded to JIT due to unsatisfactory arguments of Sharif family. The members said we are not bound to follow JIT suggestions while the court can make decision on uncontroversial documents.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan said that Sharif family adopted the approach to not tell anything to the JIT tasked to inspect every available record.
The counsel said JIT inspected those cases which were already disposed of by the courts over which the bench asked do you mean that JIT cannot review the past cases.
Also Read: Not obligatory to accept JIT findings, says Justice Ijaz
The court remarked that Sharif family hasn’t denied any document in its plea on which Khawaja Harris said that JIT didn’t ask for explanation on any data.
Justice Azmat asked about the bank account of Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia on which Khawaja Harris said that he has one and that the details of premier’s assets have already been submitted in the court.
He said volume 10 was not made public on which Justice Ijaz remarked that there is no evidence present in this volume but we can also open it if you insist.
The court has also assured that JIT is not investigating the case anymore.
Moreover, the hearing has been adjourned till Wednesday.
PM Nawaz Sharif in April narrowly escaped disqualification after the Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to remove him by a 2-3 split over documents released by the Panama Papers leak into off-shore wealth.
But it ordered further investigations, and the formation of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) panel that included Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Additional Director General Wajid Zia, Military Intelligence’s Brig Kamran Khurshid, National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Director Irfan Naeem Mangi, State Bank of Pakistan’s Amer Aziz, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP) Executive Director Bilal Rasool and Inter-Services Intelligence’s Brig Muhammad Nauman Saeed.
The JIT members during the seven-week period interrogated eight members of Sharif family including Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, daughter Maryam Nawaz, son-in-law Captain Safdar, cousin Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and brother-in-law Ishaq Dar and submitted its report on July 10.
Panama Papers had published a leak of documents belonging to Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in April 2016 creating uproar in Pakistan among other countries. The leak was studied by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and stated names of incumbent as well as former leaders of the world who owned shell companies.
Opposition parties in Pakistan saw offshore companies owned by daughter and two sons of PM Nawaz as means to either stash wealth in foreign accounts or purchase assets abroad.
The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami and reserved the verdict in February after conducting hearings on daily basis.
