‘Drawing salary from a Dubai firm enough to send PM home’

ISLAMABAD: Law Minister Zahid Hamid made it clear in the Senate on Thursday that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report could not be relied upon at any cost and resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on its basis was simply out of the question.

The minister said this while winding up the debate on the report of ‘JIT, constituted on the Panama case and malicious attacks and propaganda against national institutions, including the Supreme Court of Pakistan’. Leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan said that drawing of salary in Dubai was enough to send Nawaz home.    

Zahid Hamid said the entire probe was a complete farce and an eyewash, and was undertaken with a predisposed mind to malign and implicate the prime minister and his family for the sin which they had not committed.

"Documents relied upon by the JIT, especially from foreign jurisdictions, have been illegally procured, none of these documents bear the attestation in accordance with law, nor are any of these documents in original," he contended.

However, in contrast to what he said about JIT, opposition lawmakers showered praise on Wajid Zia-led JIT, saying the extraordinary courage shown by the brave officers would go a long towards eradication of corruption as well as exposing the mighty and the powerful.

The senators belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Awami National Party (ANP) excluding Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), had submitted a motion in the Senate to debate the JIT report that investigated the offshore assets of Sharif family on the orders of Supreme Court in wake of PanamaLeaks.

The minister insisted the JIT report could not be relied upon, as it did not share it with the respondents while recording their statements, therefore depriving them of a chance to explain their position, which was a violation of their basic rights.

He argued volume 10 of the report had been kept confidential, which was again not acceptable, as it should be shared with the respondent in the case, adding the documents collected by the JIT was not admissible.   

“Bulk of the documents were collected by the JIT through private firms, and about 80 percent of the documents are not verified and based on these reports demanding PM’s resignation is simply unacceptable,” he added.  

The minister especially targeted Wajid Zia – the head of six-member JIT – for hiring the firm of his cousin in London, which proved forgery with records of the London flats owned by Sharif family.

About the firm, he said it was a one-room firm, which had no client, but taking advantage as head of the probe team, he awarded 49,000 British pounds to his cousin, which came with the Calibri controversy.

The minister defended Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and said Dar, who had been dealing with the financial matters for the last 35 years, had all the tax-related record.  The minister also blamed 1999 coup for the missing tax record of Dar, and said the moment JIT asked about it, the finance minister had sent all the details to them within hours after he appeared before the JIT.  

Aitzaz Ahsan hit hard at the government and said the JIT report had made everything crystal clear, and the government’s attempt to make it controversial was nothing but a time-buying tactic to linger on the case.

“I had stated before and am saying it now that Panama could have been concluded within four days. If the prime minister of a country is caught drawing salary from a foreign company, it is clearly violating the oath he had taken to unconditionally serve the country and is therefore enough to send him home,” Aitzaz said while referring to the ‘salary drawn by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from a Dubai-based company’.

Majority of treasury lawmakers said Panama was a conspiracy against Nawaz Sharif; they also insisted Nawaz was the only leader, who could not bow before the Americans and other anti-Pakistan forces due to which they wanted his ouster through the PanamaLeaks.  

PML-N parliamentary leader Mushahidullah charged that Wajid Zia had a few days, but even then he rewarded his own cousin.  “If such people are given power then one can imagine what they will do,” he asserted.

Senator Saleem Zia of the ruling party made it clear that the prime minister would not tender resignation on the desire of someone come what may. But, Aitzaz Ahsan put aside all their criticism by saying that the Supreme Court had put forth 13 questions on April 20, 2017, and the government’s claim that it was preplanned shows they have already realized their defeat is a writing on the wall.

Aitzaz also said that the main issue was burden of proof which the Sharif family failed to provide as the apex court has been asking them for the last one year. He also advised the prime minister that no conspiracy is being hatched against him, except by his close aides.

Demanding resignation of prime minister, Senator Farhatullah Babar of PPP also criticized the ISPR tweet that claimed 'to stand by the side of law and justice and against corruption'.

“One wishes that when General Pervez Musharraf fled the court and sought shelter in a Rawalpindi hospital, the ISPR had also then stood by the side of law and justice. Standing by the rule of law only selectively is a mockery of the rule of law and justice,” he lamented.

After the prime minister has been accused of perjury and false document there is no option for him but to step down and let the law take its course, he said, adding if the prime minister has to quit as a result of accountability he must but it will be wrong to say that it will pose threat to democracy.

He said that by resigning the PM would also stand on high moral ground to demand an end to culture of sacred cows in the fight against corruption by directing his party in the recently established Parliamentary Committee on Accountability Law to ensure that judges and generals were also subjected to a uniform accountability mechanism.