Imran rejects formation of commission

PanamaLeaks
Says Supreme Court should decide the case at earliest

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Thursday that his party did not want a commission to probe the Panama Papers case against the prime minister and his children, saying the Supreme Court bench was capable and competent to decide the matter.

“Our party and 200 million people of Pakistan want the Supreme Court to issue its judgment as early as possible on the PanamaLeaks case by holding the hearing on daily basis. We don’t require a commission,” Imran said while talking to journalists after chairing a meeting of the party’s consultation session here and getting opinion from the lawyers’ team.

He explained everyone he spoke to was against the commission unless Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned. “If the commission is formed, it would not function independently, as all the agencies, including the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), worked under the PM and these institutions had shown their helplessness even before the apex court against the PM,” Imran said. He reiterated that the prime minister would have to first resign in case of formation of a commission.

The PTI chairman alleged that all the ministers were working to hide the Sharif family’s corruption. He pointed out the Supreme Court had announced to investigate the Panama Papers case and the rulers were answerable to the masses, and had referred to the example of Hazrat Umer (RA).

On hearing that, he said they decided to go to the apex court while they were planning to bring one million people to Islamabad, who would have locked down the federal capital. He recalled the backlash they faced from the party, the public and even the media when they decided to rely on the apex court hearing, as people had in their mind that justice was never delivered against the powerful. He said the thing, which came up during hearing on Wednesday was that they thought to have won the case, after Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer declared that the speech the premier delivered in the National Assembly was a political statement, meaning, thereby, it was a lie.

“Nawaz was saying in his speech in the assembly that he had all the record and money trail of the wealth, which reached Mayfair after the Gulf Steel was sold in 1980, and they would present the relative documents in the court,” he said.

Imran noted why the prime minister had said so in the assembly was because the opposition had asked questions about the money trail of the Mayfair apartments but his lawyer said in the court he had no documents in this connection.

The PTI chairman said they proved that the steel mill was running in losses to the tune of 2.6 million dirhams and when a judge asked about this, Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer replied, “We have no idea. Someone must have paid the amount, as the transaction was made on chits at that time.”

Imran said his question was Nawaz lied in the assembly, if he had no documents to prove what he had said. “We knew he was lying, as he thought they could never appear before the court to present those documents. But he had a written speech before him: he did not deliver a verbal speech,” the PTI chief remarked. This lie, he alleged, was not an ordinary lie, as he was an elected prime minister and supposed to take care of the tax money of the masses and that there hid behind this lie billions of masses’ rupees.

He recalled how the ex-president of the US Nixon was held accountable when his lie was caught on phone and Bill Clinton was to face impeachment on his lie. Imran claimed the Sharif family had lost the case on Wednesday, as the money trail could not be proved in the apex court, adding that there were standards for a prime minister to uphold, above the common citizen.

Imran said the government lawyers had objected to the evidence, they downloaded from the ICIJ website regarding Maryam being the beneficiary of the Nescoll and Nielson companies and the same Panama Papers and the ICIJ findings led to the accountability of David Cameron and stepping down of Iceland's premier. For seven months, he noted, the Sharif family or the FBR raised no objection about the website and only last month, the FBR served a notice on it.

He again alleged the government was making desperate bids to hide the prime minister and his family’s corruption. He said the government lawyers might complete their arguments on Friday and after that his lawyer would make a rebuttal. He said the PTI lawyer Naeem Bokhari would make a request to the apex court bench to announce its judgment as early as possible. “Whatever judgment is announced, would be acceptable, as the prime minister has failed to prove money trail of the Mayfair flats, which he had promised to the nation."