Daily Times

LAHORE: Two of the country’s opposition parties on Friday again asked the government to start investigation into Panama scandal from forensic audit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family’s wealth. Talking to media at the Lahore High Court

(LHC), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan said that a new law should be enacted to decide terms of references (TORs) of the investigation commission. The PPP leader alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif evaded taxes in 1994 and 1996. He demanded the prime minister reveal the truth behind Panama leaks before parliament.

“The prime minister is only cursing the opposition at public meetings. The Sharif family did not pay a single paisa tax in 1994 and 1996. How tens of millions of rupees flew out of the country. There should be a forensic audit of the issue,” he said.

At least 140 world leaders were alleged of stashing their wealth abroad and being indulged in illegal dealings through offshore companies. PM Nawaz was not directly named in the leaks but his family members were. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq appealed the chief justice of Supreme Court to investigate into the Panama leaks, considering it a national duty so that the plundered public money could be recovered. Addressing a press conference at Mansoora where he also announced 13-point TOR’s framed by the JI Central Shoora, Siraj said that only an autonomous and all-powerful commission headed by the chief justice of Supreme Court was acceptable to the nation. The commission must be announced immediately and it should begin work within a fortnight by asking from all those named in the Panama Leaks the sources of their earning, he said.

Siraj said investigation should begin from prime minister and his family members and the judicial commission should confine its probe into the Panama leaks for the time being. He also said that the ToRs sent to the CJP by the prime minister would lead to nothing.