Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday said that the Supreme Court judge’s remarks about the Panama case were not an ‘ordinary thing’.

He was referring to the remarks of Justice Qazi Faez Isa made while hearing a lawmaker’s disqualification case on Tuesday that the Panama case was about the London flats but the prime minister was disqualified over an iqama (foreign work permit).

Talking to reporters at the accountability court conducting corruption proceedings against him, the former PM said now the issue of his disqualification was being raised both inside and outside the Supreme Court.

To a question that whether he plans to approach the Supreme Judicial Council against the ‘injustice’ of the judges, the three-time prime minister thanked the reporter for giving him a ‘good idea’.

Referring to his disqualification by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case last year, Nawaz said, “The decision was not right in my as well as the nation’s opinion. I was disqualified for not taking a salary from my own son and that too by taking help from Black’s Law Dictionary.”

Nawaz recalled that even Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had termed the Panama case judgment ‘weak’. “The judgment speaks for itself. Comparing his case to those of his opponents, the PML-N supremo said despite Imran’s crimes, he was declared ‘honest and truthful’. “A decision came against [PTI leader] Jahangir Tareen, but there was no JIT or references [against him]. But in our case, a six-month deadline was given for investigation and a monitoring judge was also assigned,” he stated.

Published in Daily Times, March 22^nd 2018.