Pakistan SC to rule on Panama case on Friday

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday will announce its verdict in the Panama Papers leaks case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family for alleged corruption, the top court’s registrar said.

According to a supplementary cause list issued this evening, the apex court will announce its verdict at 11:30 am.

The decision is keenly awaited as it would determine the course of Pakistan’s polity and with it Sharif’s. An adverse decision may result in Sharif’s disqualification or snap elections.

The high-profile scandal is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in the 1990s, when he twice served as prime minister, to purchase assets in London.

The assets surfaced when Panama Papers leak last year revealed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharif’s children.

The assets include four expensive flats in London.

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