RAWALPINDI, April 24: The Army’s senior command resolved at a Corps Commanders’ Conference at General Headquarters on Monday that the military would play its ‘due role’ as part of the Supreme Court-ordered Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which will probe Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family’s business dealings abroad.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement said the forum had discussed the apex court’s Panamagate verdict with special reference to the JIT.
“The forum pledged that the institution, through its members in the JIT, shall play its due role in a legal and transparent manner, fulfilling [the] confidence reposed [in the military] by the apex court,” the ISPR said.
The JIT is to include officials from the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the State Bank of Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), and will be led by an assistant director general level officer from the FIA, according to the SC order.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, one of the judges with a dissenting opinion in the 2:3 split verdict of the case, had said in the detailed judgement that the apex court had to entertain the case “in the backdrop of an unfortunate refusal/failure on the part of all the relevant institutions in the country, like the NAB, the FIA, the SBP, the Federal Board of Revenue, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and the National Assembly speaker to inquire into or investigate the matter.”
It has been commented that the ISI and the MI have been included in the JIT to allay these concerns.-Agencies
