ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the review petitions filed by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his children and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against the July 28 verdict in Panama Papers case. After the counsels for Nawaz Sharif; his children – Hasan, Hussain and Maryam; son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar concluded their arguments on Friday, the court reserved its verdict for a short time and later announced it. A five-member larger bench consisting of Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the review petitions for three consecutive days. The short verdict announced by Justice Khosa said, “For reasons to be recorded later, all these review petitions are dismissed.” The reasons of dismissing the review petitions will be given in a detailed judgement. With the rejection of the review petitions, Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification as a member of parliament remains intact. The Sharif family and Dar will now face corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Islamabad Accountability Court. Earlier in the day, Salman Akram Raja, the counsel for Sharif’s children and son-in-law, adopted the arguments advanced by the counsel for Nawaz Sharif Khawaja Haris Ahmad. However, in some of his brief arguments, he contended that the court had ordered filing of a reference against Safdar in relation to the Avenfield properties in London, despite the fact that he had no connection with those properties. He contended that no such link of Safdar even emerged in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report. He said that Safdar had signed the trust deed executed between Hussain and Maryam regarding the properties as a witness only. “The JIT report states that Maryam was the beneficial owner of the two offshore companies which owned the London flats,” Justice Khosa observed. He said Safdar definitely had some connection with the London flats. “The British Virgin Islands authorities had deemed Maryam to be the owner of the said offshore companies, thus it is incorrect to suggest that Safdar, husband of Maryam, has nothing to do with the flats,” Justice Ejaz Afzal observed. To a contention of Salman Akram Raja that Safdar’s fundamental rights would be violated due to the filing of a graft reference against him, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed assured him that no compromise would be made on the petitioners’ fundamental rights and the right to a fair trial. “Your client is free to cross-examine the witnesses during the trial,” Justice Sheikh Azmat told Salman Raja. Justice Khosa observed that Maryam had earlier disowned the London flats, but the JIT report revealed that she was the owner. In response to Raja’s argument that the trial court may be affected by the court’s observations, Justice Sheikh Azmat remarked that the bench had already assured that its observations would not affect the trial proceedings. He said that there would be no compromise on a fair trial and the trial court would decide the case on the basis of evidence. After the dismissal of the review pleas, the Sharif family and Ishaq Dar will now face the Islamabad Accountability Court, where three references against the Sharif family and one against Dar have already been filed and members of the Sharif family have been told to appear on September 19 and Dar on September 20. The SC in its July verdict in Panama case disqualified Nawaz as premier under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution for failing to declare unclaimed wages he earned as chairman of Capital FZE in the assets statement he filed along with his nomination papers in 2013. Published in Daily Times, September 16th 2017.