And the need to wrap it up in time
The Supreme Court – less than two weeks after the Panama case verdict – has formed the Panama case verdict implementation bench that will consist of the same three judges who gave the majority decision to investigate the Prime Minister (PM) and his two sons further.
This is a welcome move by the Supreme Court (SC) given that the judges are well aware of the facts of the case and will now be seeking relevant and better answers to their questions as opposed to the arguments presented during the Panama hearings.
During the first hearing the bench rejected the names of nominees for the six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission Pakistan (SECP) and the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP). This displays the bench’s lack of patience for time wastage by the JIT which is to report to them every two weeks with their findings.
Usually JIT’s take much longer than the sixty day deadline given to this one by the bench. Any extension(s) allowed to the investigation team will only fuel the already widespread pessimism towards JITs and their ability to provide timely justice.
This JIT also includes members from two military intelligence bodies, namely the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI). Perhaps it would have been better that the Panama Case bench had considered the possible implications of having military intelligence probing Sharif in light of the on-going civ-mil tension. The army’s rejection of the ‘Dawn leaks’ investigation findings and the PM’s notification that followed has exasperated the situation.
Given the chequered history of JIT’s in Pakistan, it is no wonder that the Sharif camp is celebrating the majority decision. What they fail to understand is that this is a continuation of the same trial and they have to prove their innocence beyond a reasonable doubt to three judges who by no stretch of the imagination have given Nawaz Sharif a clean chit.
