JIT didn’t bother to share info with SC judges

ISLAMABAD: Even the confidential report submitted by the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT) only for the perusal of the Supreme Court judges of the Panama Case Implementation Bench didn’t disclose the identity and name of the organisation of the person who leaked the picture of Hussain Nawaz, highly-placed sources confirmed to The News.

A screenshot of CCTV video footage made during the recording of the statement of Hussain Nawaz on May 28, 2017 was leaked on social media on June 4, 2017. It was meant to humiliate the accused and his family simply before the appearance of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before the JIT.

Hussain Nawaz filed an application before the apex court against this act of humiliation reflecting the bias of the JIT before the SC Implementation Bench on June 7, 2017, and demanded a judicial inquiry into the leaked picture issue.

On June 12, the JIT submitted an 11-page reply to the complaint filed by Hussain Nawaz. According to this response, the JIT launched an inquiry into the matter immediately after the issue came into its knowledge on June 4. The JIT added that it identified the person who leaked the photo and sent him back to his parent organization where he was penalised. In its response, the JIT also declared that it completed the investigation within only 24 hours and also immediately submitted “a report to the bench” much before the filing of Hussain Nawaz’s complaint on June 7.

After submission of a comprehensive 11-page response by the JIT on June 12, the first question that has arisen was when the JIT had already submitted a report to the bench before June 7, why the same was not discussed during the June 7 hearing.

The second question is why the JIT was again asked to submit a reply to Hussain Nawaz’s application when it already had submitted a detailed inquiry report to the bench containing all the details even before the filing of the complaint.

Now it has been revealed and confirmed by credible sources that the JIT has become so much powerful that it didn’t bother to inform the honourable judges of the Supreme Court about the name of the person involved and the name of his department in its confidential inquiry report submitted within 24 hours after the leaked photo was reported on the media. The JIT didn’t even trust the judges of the apex court to inform them in writing about the identity of the person and his organization involved in this shameful act.

In a subsequent hearing, a JIT member, however, said that the name of the person could not be disclosed because of security reasons. However, the JIT remained tight-lipped even about the name of the organization involved in this act. The issue is still pending and the honourable SC has yet to decide ordering the constitution of a high-powered judicial commission, which can probe and identify the culprits behind this act which made the whole JIT proceedings controversial and biased.

There are people who are commenting how a leaked picture issue has become more important than the most important pending issue under investigation, i.e. the Panama Papers case. They say the leaked picture issue should be ignored. The issue of leaked picture and disclosure of identity of the organization involved in it is very important because it will make the proceedings transparent. Otherwise, no one will trust any findings of the JIT on the issues which, according to these people, is “the most important issue”. It is obvious that the picture is leaked by those officials who are controlling the administrative functions of the JIT and thus this disclosure becomes much more important.