Panamagate: Sharif to appear before JIT
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will appear on Thursday before a Supreme Court-appointed team probing the Panamagate graft case, making him the first sitting premier to depose before such a panel.
On Wednesday, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) also summoned his younger brother and Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif to face questioning by the six-member team.
The JIT was set up by the Supreme Court last month to investigate the Sharif family about its properties in London.
It had questioned Sharif’s sons -- Hussain and Hasan -- last month over the family’s alleged improper business dealings. Hussain, the eldest son, was questioned five times while Hasan, the younger one, appeared twice.
JIT chief Wajid Zia had summoned the prime minister to appear with all documents relevant to the case.
The court last year took up the case and issued a split decision over allegations of money laundering when Sharif was prime minister in 1990s.
The JIT is bound to complete the probe in 60 days unless it is granted additional time. It had alleged that the government was using its official machinery to hamper its investigation.
It also identified five government departments, including Ministry of Law, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which were trying to influence the JIT work.
The Supreme Court has asked the government to respond to the allegations against the departments.
A day ahead of his court appearance, the Election Commission of Pakistan gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after verifying statements of assets and liabilities he had submitted before it.
The ECP had, for the first time, started the process of verification of annual statements of assets and liabilities of all lawmakers for the financial year ending June 30, 2016.
The ECP had found ‘anomalies’ in the statements of most of the members of the National Assembly (MNAs).
This prompted it to write to all such MNAs, including Prime Minister Sharif, to clarify their position, the Express Tribune reported.
“Around 50% of the MNAs we wrote to, seeking clarification over certain points, have been cleared . Prime Minister Sharif is among them,” it quoted an ECP official as saying.AGENCIES