Imran threatens to take to streets if justice denied

Says they won’t let nation forget Panama Papers case

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday threatened to take to the streets if justice was not provided to them. However, he was hopeful that the incumbent bench of the Supreme Court would hear the PanamaLeaks case in January and said his party would seek a reply from the prime minister about his lawyer’s contention that his (Nawaz) speech in the National Assembly was a political statement.

 Talking to journalists outside his Banigala residence, Imran expressed the resolve to let the nation forget Panama Papers issue and that this would be taken to its logical conclusion, as this case would decide in which direction Pakistan was heading, adding that it would show that the powerful could also be held accountable under the law.

 He reiterated there was no need for formation of an inquiry commission, as everything was before the Supreme Court and the nation. “We hope the larger bench hears the Panama case. The nation has never before evinced this much interest in any case. It is in grip of anxiety. The case maybe decided as early as it is possible,” he maintained.

 Imran alleged Nawaz Sharif made money after becoming prime minister and then transferred it abroad, whereas Maryam Nawaz in an interview said she had no property anywhere but the Panama Papers revealed things otherwise and the Sharif family had to accept they had property in London.

 Calling Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, he said Khawaja Asif they would not let the nation forget Panama case come what may, which he had said the nation would soon forget.

 Imran gave a clear message to the prime minister, the ruling PML-N and Khawaja Asif that the Panama Papers case would be taken to its logical end and added that the nation was stuck up with regards to this matter for the last eight months.

 About President Mamnoon Hussain’s speech on corruption, the PTI chairman claimed that he (president) had hinted at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had made money and then taken it abroad, bought properties and transferred in the name of his children.

 After the apex court hearing, Imran chaired another consultative session of the party’s key leaders and legal experts and expressed disappointment on rejection of their request for holding hearing on day-to-day basis.

 The PTI chairman lamented that in his speech on the floor of the National Assembly, the prime minister had said they had all documentary proofs of about the money trail and buying of the apartments in London but then reneged on that when his lawyer told the apex court the other day that they had no proofs as such and that Nawaz Sharif’s speech in the assembly was a political one. 

 The PTI chief claimed that the Sharif family has lost the case by their inability to prove the money trail.  Imran congratulated Justice Saqib Nisar, who would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after retirement of incumbent Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on December 31. He added that a huge responsibility would rest on his (Justice Saqib Nisar) shoulders with ‘regards to the Panama case’.

Earlier, Imran faced a situation: Upon his arrival at the apex court, he found one of his shoes broken (Peshawari chappal), which he tried to temporarily fix. But he could not. He was provided much-needed aid by one of his own party members Usman Dar, who gave him his own shoes. The smiling Dar boarded his car only with socks on.