Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday said that the JIT report was a pack of lies based on prejudice and dishonesty, and it had vindicated the reservations and lack of trust expressed by the Sharifs right from the beginning.

Addressing a press conference, she said the 256-page report could not point out a single corruption case and had corroborated the fact that Nawaz Sharif had neither indulged in any corruption nor had taken any kickbacks during his stints as the prime minister and chief minister of Punjab, she added.

She hoped that the Supreme Court would itself reject the fabricated lies of the JIT when it would be challenged by the legal team of the Sharifs.

Marriyum said that if the words like apprehensions, possibility and misgivings were removed, the report would be reduced to mere a collection of fables. She said that the investigative reports were not based on conjectures and assumptions, but on concrete and irrefutable evidence which was nowhere visible in the JIT report.

The minister said that the JIT report was only a report on the businesses of the Sharifs and the team had failed to answer or focus on the question asked by the SC.

It had failed to come up with concrete evidence to establish that Maryam Safdar was the beneficial owner of the offshore companies and notwithstanding the existence of trustee deed between Hussain Nawaz and Maryam, which was notarized and testified, concluded that she probably was the beneficial owner, she added.

She pointed that the JIT mostly relied on generated documents, which were not admissible in any court of law as only those documents were admissible that were signed, certified and signed by the authorities concerned.

She said questions were already being asked as to who had written the report.

Marriyum pointed out that the tone and tenor of the allegations levelled against the Sharifs by the JIT were highly objectionable and clearly indicated the bias it harboured against them.

She said that no law or constitution conferred this right on the investigative bodies to indulge in such indiscretions.

The minister claimed that the Panama Papers case was a conspiracy against the PM and it was not something new as even in the past a number of conspiracies were hatched against him with different hue and nomenclature. She said that this time not only this conspiracy would be thwarted, but the characters behind it would also be exposed.

Marriyum pointed out that the opposition was using this case as crutches for their political motives.

The minister said that the opposition was trying to mislead the masses by presenting selective narrative like it had done when the SC verdict was announced and they were snubbed by the court itself asking them to refrain from giving wrong interpretation to the court decision. She said that the present campaign against the government was a preparatory move for the third sit-in.

She said that the PM stood for service to the people and his whole politics revolved around performance, progress and prosperity of Pakistan.

Published in Daily Times, July 13^th , 2017.