Daily Times

LAHORE: The Supreme Court of Pakistan was urged on Thursday to take suo motu notice of remarks passed by federal and provincial ministers of the ruling PML-N on the Joint Investigation Team probing money laundering allegations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family.

The demand was expressed by Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly (PA) Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed following a meeting of parliamentary parties in joint opposition at the PA. He also demanded that the prime minister should step down till completion of proceedings in the Panama Papers case. Other opposition leaders said that no one would be allowed to de-rail democracy in the country or to violate the constitution.

A special meeting held at the chambers of the Leader of Opposition was attended by representatives of all four parties in the parliamentary alliance. Mehmoodur Rasheed headed the meeting, while Sabtain Khan represented the PTI, Faiza Malik the PPP, Khadija Umar Farooqi the PML-Q, and Dr Waseem Akhtar the Jamaat Islami. The meeting was called to review the ongoing situation in the JIT’s probe into allegations raised against the Sharif family following the Panama Papers leaks.

Speaking to the media, Mehmood said that serious concerns had been raised by meeting participants over verbal attacks by various PML-N leaders on the JIT as well as the judiciary and the Armed Forces. “It will not be wise to leave the matter of ministers’ criticism unattended. Those responsible in the matter should be punished,” he said.

Referring to PM Nawaz Sharif’s appearance before the JIT, Mehmood said that the PM had been summoned as a suspect in criminal investigations. “This has tarnished Pakistan’s image in the world. The PM should immediately step down till the conclusion of proceedings in the Panama Papers case,” he said.

Rasheed said that the meeting had strongly condemned waste of public funds on arranging security for Sharif family members during their visits before the JIT. “They are appearing before the JIT as suspects in their personal capacity,” he said. He said opposition parties would not accept any unconstitutional measures. Faiza Malik of the PPP condemned official protocol for PM’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and said that funds were wasted on arranging heavy security during her visit to the JIT. Malik said that there was a difference between Maryam Nawaz’s recent appearance before the JIT (as a criminal suspect) and that of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed’s who had been wrongly implicated in political cases.

Taking a jibe at the PML-N leaders, Khadija Farooqi of PML-Q said, “Landing of Maryam Nawaz in JIT will prove a crash landing”.

JI’s Dr Waseem Akhtar said no one would be allowed to de-rail democracy in the country.

There was a power outage at the Assembly building at the time of the meeting.

Published in Daily Times, July 7^th , 2017.