Calls for Sharif to quit grow louder

OPPOSITION PARTIES HEAVE WITH INDIGNATION AS PM’S ALLIES REJECT JOINT INVESTIGATION TEAM’S REPORT

Opposition parties heave with indignation as PM’s allies reject joint investigation team’s report |

P akistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was fighting for his political future yesterday after judicial investigators ruled his family had accumulated unusual wealth, with his allies denouncing the findings and vowing he would clear his name.

A Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up by the Supreme Court to investigate corruption allegations that surfaced following the Panama Papers leak, spent two months looking into the family’s wealth and reported its findings to the court on Monday.

In its report, which has been leaked to media, the team alleges Sharif’s family accumulated wealth far above its means, and says his children, including heir apparent Maryam Sharif, signed falsified documents designed to mask the truth.

Pakistani opposition parties have urged Sharif to step down from his post.

No exit list

Babar Awan, a leader of cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan’s party, said Sharif’s only option is to quit. Sirajul Haq, the leader of opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, also demanded Sharif’s resignation.

He demanded that the names of Sharif and his children be put on the Exit Control List (ECL).

“... Ayyan Ali’s name was put on ECL for money laundering. This is [no different],” Awan said yesterday.

Taking aim at Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Awan called for his immediate resignation.

“Ishaq Dar has committed two crimes: first, he did not file tax returns for his assets; second, he has committed [millions] of rupees’ worth of money laundering. We demand that he resign immediately and a case be registered against him,” the PTI’s top legal counsel said.

PTI Parliamentary leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi and opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah met to discuss the country’s overall political situation following the JIT report.

During the meeting, yesterday, both leaders agreed on making contacts with other political parties for convening National Assembly session on requisition.

Qureshi said that PM should step down immediately for the sake of democracy and in the interest of the nation. He said the PM has no moral justification to stay in office after the report had been made public.

Khan said Sharif had “lost all moral authority” and must resign immediately.

But Sharif’s allies dismissed all the allegations against him and the report.

Sharif, the son of an industrialist, has denied wrongdoing and said his family’s wealth was acquired legally.

In April, the Supreme Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to remove Sharif from office — by a split 2-3 verdict — but it ordered further investigations, which the JIT was set up to carry out.

Maryam was not available for comment but she also dismissed the report in a post on Twitter.

“JIT report REJECTED. Every contradiction will not only be contested but decimated in SC,” she wrote, referring to the Supreme Court.

“After this JIT report, the prime minister’s position has weakened and becomes unpredictable. He may have to leave,” Talat Masood, a political analyst, told Reuters.

Scandal tainted

Pakistan has for decades been plagued by rivalry between the military and civilian politicians and by pervasive graft.

Sharif was originally nurtured by the military and served as prime minister twice in the 1990s before he himself was ousted in a 1999 coup leading to a decade of exile.

He won a third term as prime minister in a 2013 election.

Since then, periods of tension between him and the powerful military have led to questions about his prospects.

His brother, Shabaz Sharif, is chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and economically and politically most important province.

The JIT team in its 254-page report alleges the family’s businesses alone are not enough to explain its wealth, which includes upscale London flats.

The JIT team is made up of civilians and members of military agencies, including the military’s main Inter-Services Intelligence agency.