The Panama case

More than a month after it started hearings into the Panama Papers case, the Supreme Court has expressed reservations with how both sides have presented their cases, and will now reconvene in January. This adds another wrinkle to the case since the sitting Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali will retire on December 31, with Justice Saqib Nisar to take over as CJ. This shouldn’t change things too much since Justice Nisar, like Justice Jamali, is known for his professionalism. As it is, the next tussle is likely to be a political rather than legal fight. The Supreme Court is considering whether the new bench should hear the case or form a commission, something the PTI has already announced it will boycott, without even knowing the composition of the commission, what investigative latitude it will have or if it will even be formed in the first place. This is a curious stance for the PTI to take since had spent months agitating for the government to form a commission. It originally wanted the PML-N government to write a letter to the Supreme Court asking it to form a commission. The government did just that but at the time the Supreme Court declined to follow through. Now that the Supreme Court is doing exactly what the PTI originally wanted, the party has decided to pre-emptively boycott the commission.

Legal experts are of the opinion that till now the case has not gone well for the PTI, which even replaced its legal team midway. In the absence of concrete evidence, the party has relied on media reports. So far, there has been no incontrovertible proof presented that the London properties were purchased by Nawaz Sharif with black money. But the government side has not had things all its own way either. The Supreme Court remarked on how the prime minister’s statements in public and parliament did not match up with the records his legal team provided and his son Hassan Nawaz  could be in hot water too for statements that could be seen as problematic. Experts hold that the final approach to this will need to be seen in light of how much the original statements tie in with what has been discovered during the case. Trying to      untangle the mess of information that has been provided will require time, which could be one reason the Supreme Court is thinking about forming a commission dedicated to this case. Despite the PTI trying to make the commission an issue, it is the Supreme Court which will set its terms of reference, and so it should be acceptable to both sides. Nawaz Sharif’s lawyers have already said that they will accept whatever the Supreme Court decides. The PTI should follow suit so that this case can finally be settled.