Pakistan SC accepts Sharif’s plea against his disqualification

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday formed a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court to hear review petitions filed by former premier Nawaz Sharif and his children challenging the court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.

Earlier, a three-judge bench of the apex court recommended to Nisar that a larger bench should be set up to hear the petitions by Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, sons Hussain and Hasan, son-in-law Muhammad Safdar and his relative and current finance minister Ishaq Dar.

When the three-judge bench took up the petitions, their counsel Salman Akram Raja and Khawaja Haris argued that a larger bench was competent to hear the matter. Accepting this request, the bench recommended that the Chief Justice should form a larger bench to hear the petitions on Wednesday.

The Sharif family had moved two separate petitions challenging the former premier’s disqualification and the charges of corruption levelled against his children and Dar.

The 67- year-old was disqualified for “dishonesty” because he had not declared an income due to him from his son’s Dubai-based firm. Sharif has said he was never paid any salary by the firm.

The petitions asked the court to review its verdict as it violated several provisions of the law.

Meanwhile, the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog, filed four corruption cases against members of the Sharif family last week.