Daily Times

As the Sharif family struggles to defend itself against charges of money laundering and unexplained wealth, another scandal of sorts has come to light. That too, by the admission of the anti-corruption crusader Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). In a recent submission before the court, Imran Khan stated that the English counties he played for did not maintain a salary record of their players beyond a period of 20 years.

The apex court had asked Imran Khan to establish financial sources for purchase of his Draycott Avenue residence in London, which according to Khan was brought through an offshore company, Niazi services. The Sharifs have been accused of laundering money through off-shore companies. Imran’s disqualification case, filed by a PML-N loyalist Hanif Abbasi, also accuses PTI’s Chairman for non-disclosure of assets, owning offshore companies and also that PTI received funds from abroad.

Imran Khan’s counsel, Naeem Bokhari, told the court that Khan received salary and payments for commercial endorsements, interviews, newspaper op-eds and prize money from Kerry Packer series, but his client didn’t have record to substantiate exact details of his employments and earnings. Similar to Sharif’s letter from Qatari prince, Mr. Khan has produced a private letter from one Mr. Austin Robertson, Director of Swan Spoty Pty Ltd. to support his contention that he received monies from Kerry Packer series.

Clearly, the two parties have taken their political battles to the court and using the disqualification laws to knock each other out. It would have been far better if such battles were fought in the electoral arena and the parliament rather than judicialising the issue. Prima facie, the stance adopted by Mr Khan is no different than the one maintained by Sharif’s legal team. On purely technical grounds, both leaders have provided defence along similar lines. Sharifs are already in the dock due to the JIT report where the paper work submitted has raised more questions than it has answered.

In Imran Khan’s defence one could say that he never held any public office while the Sharifs have enjoyed power for decades. But law is meant to be blind and the detractors of Khan say that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander too.

We hope that the Supreme Court will do complete justice in both cases. At the same time we request our colleagues in the media to exercise due caution in reporting both the cases. The bench must not be influenced by popular passions fueled through television programming. And the political parties need to do the same instead of holding parallel trials outside the courtrooms. Let the judges decide.

Published in Daily Times, July 24^th 2017.