PM Nawaz has no property abroad, JIT informed
PM took Rs 20 crore from Hussain Nawaz in 2015 in the form of dollars and euros.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by Supreme Court (SC) to probe Panama Leaks case, has started reviewing asset details of Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif.
According to the documents submitted by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PM Nawaz has no property abroad but he took Rs 20 crore from Hussain Nawaz in 2015 in the form of dollars and euros.
The cost of the premier’s Jati Umra building was shown as Rs 40 lac in the documents while he had declared as many as seven bank accounts under his name.
During the meeting headed by Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Additional Director-General Wajid Zia, JIT that also includes State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Amer Aziz, Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP) Bilal Rasool, Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) Brigadier Nauman Saeed, Military Intelligence’s (MI) Brigadier Kamran Khursheed and Director of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Irfan Mangi has started process of inspecting the authenticity of the provided information.
Earlier, JIT had asked NAB to provide complete record of the Hudaibya Paper Mills case whereas the Terms of Reference (ToRs) were also reviewed.
It is to be mentioned here that investigation team will submit a progress report after every two weeks to the apex court whereas it is also supposed to complete probe within two months.
On April 20, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had announced Panama Leaks case decision comprising of 540 pages, saying that the court issued a split ruling calling for a joint investigation team. Two of the five judges went further, branding Sharif "dishonest" and saying he should be disqualified, but they were outnumbered.
Panama Papers had published a leak of documents belonging to Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in April 2016 creating an 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.
