Judgement reserved in plea to ban recording of Panama Papers inquiry

Request comes after photograph of Prime Minister’s Nawaz Sharif’s son was leaked

The Supreme Court yesterday reserved its judgement on a petition asking it to ban video recording of the proceedings of the Panama Papers inquiry being held by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

The request comes after a photograph of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son, Hussain Nawaz, was leaked from the inquiry.

A three-member special implementation bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Shaikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan heard the case filed by Hussain Nawaz.

Advocate Khawaja Haris Ahmad, counsel for Hussain Nawaz, appeared before the bench and said that video recording of JIT proceedings should not be allowed. He alleged the JIT had no control over CCTV cameras.

Khawaja Haris expressed concern over the leaking of his client’s picture and said video could also be leaked.

Justice Ejaz remarked that video recording was done for the purpose of maintaining accurate transcripts. The facts of the case could not be affected by the procedure and the nature of statements also did not change because of it, he added.

Justice Azmat Saeed observed that the recordings would help the petitioner more than they could hurt him. Justice Azmat Saeed asked the attorney-general if he had read the JIT’s report submitted in the court on Monday. The attorney-general replied that he was yet to.

The bench directed the attorney-general to examine the JIT report and submit his response today. After listening to the arguments, the court reserved the judgement over the issue and adjourned the hearing of the case to today.