ISLAMABAD: While expressing reservations over the Supreme Court’s verdict in Panama Papers case, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday said an elected prime minister has been ousted on the basis of ‘disputed facts’.
“Supreme Court’s decision has been bifurcated into two parts. First part is about Panama Papers but the judges didn’t touch it but have asked NAB to file references instead. Removal of prime minister is not on the basis of Panama Papers,” said Khawaja Saad Rafique at a joint press conference along with Barrister Zafarullah, Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Zahid Hamid.
He said that an elected prime minister has been disqualified over allegations revolving around Rs 0.2 million only. “After allegations of billions of rupees corruption, he was disqualified over Rs 0.2 million only”, he said, adding that it was also surprising that court’s decision was not in as per the petition filed.
He said it was also regretful that the same judges had given the verdict against Nawaz Sharif who also oversaw proceeding of the joint investigation team (JIT).
“We’ll go to the people’s court and nobody can stop us from that. We have asked our supporters to stay peaceful as we will not allow anyone to disparage the integrity of the institutions,” he said.
“The court has cited a letter by a UAE-based company owned by prime minister’s son as reason for his disqualification. The company had chosen Nawaz as its director which is a ceremonial post and whose AED 10,000 salary was payable to him, which he never received,” Zahid Hamid told reporters.
“All allegations against Nawaz Sharif proved wrong but he was disqualified over a single undeclared asset. It seems unbelievable as it does not cause any change in the wealth statement of Nawaz Sharif,” Ahsan Iqbal said.
He said that PML-N wants supremacy of the constitution in the country. “We have mandate of billions of people and will complete our five-year term without any compromise,” he said, further alleging that Nawaz and the PML-N have been punished for making China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a success.
Iqbal encouraged the supporters and party workers, saying, “Supporters of PML-N should be proud of their leader as no one has undergone as much scrutiny as Nawaz Sharif did and yet nothing was proven against him except that he could have received money from his son but he did not,” he said.
Claiming that the apex court didn’t find corruption or embezzlement of even a single rupee against the prime minister, Barrister Zafarullah said the allegations, which were put forward by the petitioner, were not found eligible by the Supreme Court. “We have not seen in the human history that WhatsApp was used as evidence.”
Disparaging Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), he said it could not gather attention through month-long sit-in and lockdown of the capital and, consequently, relied on Panama Papers. “The report is entirely based on soft record. All documents are photocopies. Justice hasn’t been served as per our understanding of the legislation,” he said.
While calling Imran as ‘pawn’, the PML-N leader said that PTI chief was using such tactics as he is playing in the hands of someone else and trying to derail an elected government.
Shahid Khaqan Abbassi said his party respected the verdict but it was their right to reveal facts for the knowledge of the general public. He said the prime minister was disqualified because he did not take any money from his son. “History will not accept this verdict. We want to put this before people that no allegation of corruption has been proved against Nawaz Sharif.”
Published in Daily Times, July 29th , 2017.