ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb on Thursday said that the Panama case was not about corruption or kick-backs but about the offshore companies, which the opposition was using for political gains.
She said that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the Panama Papers had so far been probing private business of the Sharif family and had found no incriminating evidence to establish that the London flats were purchased through foreign funding or kick-backs.
Talking to the media outside the Supreme Court, she said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family had unswerving respect for the judiciary and its verdicts, and were confident of getting justice in the Panama case through rule of law and constitution.
She said that despite several reservations about the JIT, the government did not pose any hurdle in its proceedings and all those, who were summoned, including the Prime Minister, Punjab Chief Minister, Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, appeared before it accordingly.
She said that the names of the prime minister and chief minister Punjab did not appear in the leaks but they still appeared before the JIT to uphold the law.
Marriyum said that when the Panama leaks surfaced, it was the Prime Minister who asked the Supreme Court to form a commission or JIT but the court decided that the issue should be taken to the parliament.
She said that the opponents were lying consistently for the last 15 months to mislead the public, claiming that the PTI submitted false facts before the Supreme Court.
She also questioned as to why the PTI was so reluctant to submit a reply to the ECP and the Supreme Court in the foreign funding and disqualification cases.
She said the PTI government had failed to deliver in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Ehtsab Commission had been made dysfunctional. The minister regretted that the PTI was in the habit of boycotting media channels which were not toeing and pursing its stance or policy.
Answering a question, the minister said that all corrupt politicians, facing corruption references, were joining the PTI due to their like-mindedness.
Reacting to the attempt by the female workers of PTI and its lawyers to forcibly take over the rostrum from her which was forestalled by the police, the minister said that the PTI was a party of goons and gangsters whose behaviour was visible to the entire country.