Nawaz terms JIT report on Pakpattan land allotment case ‘one-sided’

Author: Daily Times Monitor

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday submitted his response in the Supreme Court in the Pakpattan land allotment case, a private TV channel reported.

In his reply, Sharif termed the joint investigation team (JIT) report ‘one-sided’ and based on ‘mala fide intentions’. Raising questions on the formation of the JIT headed by Hussain Asghar, Sharif said the top court had constituted a three-member inquiry team on December 27 last year which had to include one officer each from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB). However, he said, the other two officers were not named in the JIT report. Moreover, the report doesn’t mention the court’s consent on the terms of reference (ToRs).

He maintained that due to such reasons, it looked like the report was prepared solely by Hussain Asghar in contravention to the court orders. The response also said that the JIT didn’t contact Nawaz Sharif at any point during the investigations, which was a violation of his fundamental rights. He prayed to the court to dismiss the JIT report which incriminated him in the illegal land allotment case.

Nawaz Sharif submitted the response in his capacity as chief minister of Punjab, a position which he held from April 1985 to August 1990 before being elevated to the post of prime minister in November 1990.

The top court on December 13 last year had constituted a joint investigation team to probe the illegal transfer of a piece of land belonging to the Auqaf Department in Punjab’s Pakpattan district in 1985.

On January 15, the JIT told the Supreme Court through its report that Nawaz Sharif had illegally allotted 14,398 acres of Waqf property, which is attached to the shrine of Baba Farid-ud-Din Ganj Shakar in Pakpattan to Dewan Ghulam Qutab when he was the provincial chief executive.

A three-judge bench headed by then chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar, upon receiving the JIT report, had asked Sharif and the Punjab government to furnish replies on the report within a fortnight.

Published in Daily Times, February 17^th2019.