The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which probed the Panama Papers case against Nawaz Sharif’s family assets has recommended reopening 15 cases against the Pakistani Prime Minister, the media reported yesterday.
Of these 15 cases, three were registered during the 1994 and 2011 tenures of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and 12 during President Pervez Musharraf’s regime, soon after he toppled the Sharif government in the October 1999 military coup, reports Dawn News.
The case regarding the Sharif family’s four London apartments was also among the investigations started by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in December 1999.
In its April 20 verdict, the Supreme Court asked the JIT to investigate the money trail for the London flats, Dawn News reported.
The JIT noted “that these (15) cases have also been quashed without conducting a proper trial and without giving evidence a chance to come on record”. The probe team also recommended the NAB be complete its investigation into the London properties.
On July 10, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court began examining a report submitted by the JIT over the money laundering allegations.
The bench, after examination of the report, asked for transcripts of all speeches made in the last 60 days by Sharif’s party leaders, presumably to examine them for contemptuous content.
The next hearing is scheduled for today.
As the country awaits the result of Joint Investigation Team’s report on the assets of Prime Minister Sharif’s family after it has been furnished with the Supreme Court Implementation Bench, senior legal minds differ on the procedure to be adopted next.
Some are of view that the Implementation Bench will examine the JIT report, issue notices to the parties and decide the case, while a few say the report is for the satisfaction of judges only and they can decide on their own after the report comes before them.
Some senior lawyers and legal minds are of view that the Implementation Bench will send the JIT report to the chief justice who will refer it back to the five-member bench of the Panama case to decide the matter.
A few also hold that the CJ can constitute a new bench once the JIT report comes to him or the matter is referred to him.
Talking about the next process of the case after the JIT report, eminent lawyer and constitutional expert Abid Hassan Manto said it was up to the apex court to decide whether to continue hearing by itself or refer the case to a trial court.
“I am not sure about what the Supreme Court decides. It is fully empowered to hear the case by itself or it can even refer it to any accountability or trial court,” he said.
Salman Akram Raja, Advocate Supreme Court, said the three judges of the Implementation Bench will decide the case. They can dispose of the case, they can send a reference, they can pass an order, or they can refer the case to the chief justice for further action, he said.
He said a bench of the SC could pass any order.
He said the Implementation Bench was a fully-fledged bench of the SC; therefore, it can pass any order and decide the case in hand.
Senior Advocate Supreme Court Akram Sheikh said the chief Justice of Pakistan had formed the Implementation Bench based on the judgment of 20th April and in all those cases where commissions were formed, the report of the commission was presented to the court and all the parties were issued notices and the report was always subject to cross- examination.
He said the JIT report could be sent to the chief justice who will decide which bench should hear the case and in his opinion the case could not go to the same 5-member bench of the SC because two among them had already opined on the case; therefore, either a new bench or a larger bench would be formed, as it was entirely up to the CJ to decide.
Akram Sheikh said it was the jurisdiction of the chief justice to refer the matter to either the same three judges, or form a new bench to decide the fate of the JIT report.
Nawaz Sharif
