Panama papers issue

Back to the Supreme Court

In May, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali declined the federal government’s plea to form a judicial commission to probe the Panama Papers’ leaks for two reasons. First, there was a need for fresh legislation by Parliament so that the commission was not toothless. Second, the issue of the commission’s ToRs had to be settled. Five months after the matter landed into the politician’s court, there is still no fresh legislation and no agreement among them on ToRs. Had there been a will to resolve the issue the two sides could have settled the differences through give and take months back. The government hoped to make everyone forget the issue by sweeping it under the carpet. . The opposition thought the information provided by the Panama Papers about the purchase of costly properties by Prime Minister’s scions with unexplained sources of funding provided it deadly ammunition against the ruling party all the way till the coming elections.

A dispute that the Supreme Court had asked the government to resolve politically has landed in the court again as petitions have been filed seeking the disqualification of the Prime Minister on account of Panama Papers’ revelations. Notices have been issued to Nawaz Sharif, his two sons and a daughter, son-in-law Captain Safdar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and a number of government officials. The government had consistently maintained that as Nawaz Sharif ’s name did not appear in Panama Papers, he was being unjustly involved in the case, The apex court’s decision to call the Prime Minister indicates that the way the family scions received the funds to set up businesses required some clarification from the Prime Minister also. Imran Khan can no more claim that he was forced to resort to marches and sit-ins as no institution was willing to investigate Panama leaks. With Supreme Court taking cognisance of the issue, the PTi chief is left with no justification for locking up Islamabad. It is high time Imran Khan called it a day