Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday objected to the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s verdict in Panama Papers leaks case, which disqualified Nawaz Sharif on the basis of Iqama.

In an interview with a private news channel, Khan said the court gave a “weak verdict” on the basis of Iqama, instead of the Panama Papers.

On July 28, 2017, Nawaz Sharif had stepped down as the prime minister of Pakistan after being disqualified from holding public office by the SC in a landmark decision in the Panama Papers case.

Announcing its verdict, the five-member bench unanimously disqualified Nawaz Sharif for failing to disclose his “un-withdrawn receivables”, constituting assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nominations papers for the 2013 General Election, stating that this meant he was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’, as per the Constitution.

Khan said that Nawaz was delivering speeches against the judiciary following the verdict, but the court had not taken action.

“He [Nawaz] should have been imprisoned for contempt of court, but he drew more courage seeing the judiciary was not taking any action.” In the past, Imran has not only fully supported Nawaz’s ouster on the basis of Iqama.

Published in Daily Times, February 19^th 2018.