Nawaz to face another JIT

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday constituted a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for probing the the charges against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for transferring Auqaf’s land to Dewan Ghulam Qutub in 1985 when he was the Punjab Chief Minister.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing the suo motu case pertaining to the illegal construction of shops on the land of the Pakpattan shrine and the transfer of 14,000 kanals to Dewan Ghulam Qutab in 1985. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will be headed by National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Chairman Khaliq Dad Lak and comprises an official each of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The court directed members of the JIT members to appear before the court and submit by December 27 the Terms of Reference (TORs) for probing the case. The court ruled that the JIT would investigate the role of the former Chief Minister Punjab in the transfer of Auqaf’s land.

The court formed the JIT after Barrister Zafrullah Khan, counsel for Nawaz Sharif, informed it that it could assign anyone the task of investigations. During the hearing, the court remarked that now his (Nawaz’s) memory was lost. It is pertinent to mention here that Nawaz had told the court that the case was so old that he could not remember its details.