Nazia Nazar
The three-member bench of the Supreme Court has finalized the members of the Joint Investigating Team (JIT), and its members have been selected by Supreme Court purely on merit in view of their impartial and clean record of service. Pakistan People’s Party has rejected the Joint Investigation Team formed by Supreme Court over the issue of the Panama leaks. Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah said on Saturday that if all the five judges declared Qatari letter as a ‘false one’, there is no point in forming JIT. He added that JIT should comprise Supreme Court Judges, not realizing that the court cannot investigate in such matters and has to depend on other departments that are bound to assist the apex court. Others contend that all departments are under the prime minister, thus he can influence the officials tasked to probe his family assets.
But they should keep in mind that the JIT has not been formed by the government but the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and it would monitor the proceedings of the team on weekly basis. Therefore, the chattering classes should have trust in SC as well as the JIT. The SC’s verdict on the Panama case was split 3-2 among a five-judge bench, with the two dissenting notes in the judgment authored by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed. The two judges had ruled against PM Nawaz Sharif, saying he should be disqualified, whereas the other three were in favour of forming a JIT, which meant that it was inconclusive judgment and further probe was necessary to give the final verdict. In the above verdict, the bench had asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and sons Hassan and Hussain to appear before the JIT.
The five-judge bench, comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, considered the evidence presented by opposition parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Watan Party and the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML). In the 540-page verdict, the five-member bench, that was divided 3-2 over the decision, said that “the NAB Chairman has failed to cooperate with the investigation, and the FIA has failed to curb white collar crimes, necessitating the formulation of the JIT.” It was in this backdrop that the Supreme Court asked the JIT to investigate the money trail issued by the Prime Minister. The case was initiated after documents leaked from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm showing Nawaz Sharif’s daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy properties in London.
Of course, late last year the Supreme Court had agreed to investigate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif family’s offshore wealth after opposition leader Imran Khan threatened street protests. Though the prime minister’s name is not directly mentioned in the Panama documents, his twice addressing the nation explaining his own position followed by PML-N top leaders’ outpourings had further complicated the situation. Anyhow, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had ruled there was insufficient evidence of corruption to remove Nawaz Sharif from the office of prime minister. It instead ordered a further investigation into money transfers. Questions arose over the business dealings of Mr. Sharif’s family when three of his children were linked to offshore accounts in the Panama Papers leaks in 2015. The case made headlines in recent months amid predictions it could determine the future of PM Nawaz Sharif.
Panamagate is a scandal which shook the power centers of many countries of the world. Due to leaked documents from Mossack Fonceka, a Panama based law firm specialising in offshore services, the prime minister of Ice Land had to resign and many others were embarrassed and had to seek public apology. Although late (it’s better to be late than never), but the honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan also gave a decision on Panama leaks, forming a JIT to probe further into the matter of money laundering and tax evasion. Interestingly, the Supreme Court verdict started with the quote from the famous novel of Mario Puzo, The Godfather, quoting “behind every big fortune, there is a crime”. But some analysts interpreted quoting of the famous quote as an observation or a hint towards the Sharif family, which was not true.
Hearing the case regarding the implementation of Panama verdict, justice Ejaz said that a political leader quoted his note from the Panama judgment and inferred that he had called prime minister Nawaz Sharif a ‘liar’ which was incorrect. Justice Ejaz Afzal remarked on last Friday that no judge had ever called prime minister Nawaz Sharif ‘liar’. Of course, none of the three honorable judges of the present bench called Nawaz Sharif a liar, but two honorable judges Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed had said that Nawaz Sharif is not sadiq and amin. Imran Khan had hailed the verdict by the five-member bench of the supreme court, but in his speeches said that other three judges also did not accept Qatari letter, which showed lack of trust in Sharif family, and that formation of the JIT was an acknowledgement that further probe was necessary to give the final verdict.
