ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the review petitions filed by former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, his children and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against its July 28 judgment, delivered in the Panama Papers case under which Nawaz Sharif was disqualified.
A five-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh and Justice Ijazul Ahsen, heard the review petitions. The same bench had disqualified Nawaz Sharif on July 28 for not being ‘honest’ under the law and disqualified him as member of parliament and ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file references against him and his family members.
The court had directed NAB to file references against Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar relating to the Avenfield properties (Flats No16, 16-A, 17 and 17-A Avenfield House, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom).
Later, Nawaz Sharif, his children, Captain Safdar and Ishaq Dar had challenged the apex court’s decision and prayed that the final order of the court/judgment dated July 28 suffered from errors floating on the surface of the record, besides being per incuriam, and was, therefore, liable to be reviewed.
On Friday, the court after hearing the counsels of theSharif family dismissed their review petitions, maintaining the disqualification of Nawz Sharif. “For reasons to be recorded later, all these review petitions are dismissed,” the court announced in a short order.
The court also disposed of the petition filed by the Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed against NAB, accusing the latter of failing to file an appeal regarding the Hudaibya Paper Mills case in accordance with the SC verdict.
Appearing before the court in-person, Sheikh Rasheed submitted that NAB had assured the court that it was going to consider filing an appeal against the Lahore High Court (LHC) judgment in the Hudaibya Papers Mills case, however, it was still not filed.
Prosecutor General NAB Waqas Qadeer Dar said that on September 14, the NAB chairman approved filing of an appeal against the judgment passed by the LHC in the case of M/S Hudaibya Paper Mills Ltd. He said the NAB chairman had directed him for filing an appeal in this regard before this court.
The court ruled that in view of the information supplied and the statement made by the prosecutor-general, the applicant does not press this miscellaneous application and it is, therefore, disposed of as having not been pressed.
Earlier, Salman Akram Raja, counsel for Maryam Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz, Hassan Nawaz and Captain Safdar, submitted that he had adopted the arguments of Khawaja Haris, counsel for Nawaz Sharif, but said that he will present his arguments on the direction given by the court to NAB for filing references against the children of Nawaz Sharif and his son-in law. He contended that the apex court had also directed filing of a reference against Captain Safdar in relation to the Avenfield properties in London. He contended that Captain Safdar has nothing to do with the flats. In fact, he said, Safdar had signed the trust deed executed between Maryam and Hussain Nawaz regarding the properties as a witness only.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that the report filed by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had revealed that Maryam was the beneficial owner of the two offshore companies which owned the London flats.
Justice Ejaz Afzal said that being the spouse of Maryam Nawaz, Safdar must have some connection. “It would however not be proper to give any sort of observation at this stage and the trial court must decide about it,” Justice Ejaz Afzal said.
The court repeatedly assured the learned counsel that no prejudice would be made in the instant matter. The court said no observation of the court will influence the working of the trial court. “No prejudice would be allowed in this matter, we assure you,” Justice Azmat Saeed said, adding that they had taken the oath under the Constitution to protect the rights of the people.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that they had touched upon the constitutionality of the matter while the matter related to criminal side will be dealt by the trial court. “We are very much careful,” Justice Khosa remarked.
