Islamabad: The hashtag “Main Bhee Nawaz Hoon” — which translates to “I am Nawaz too” — has become the leading trend on Pakistani twitter after news of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appearing before the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) broke.

A large number of tweets and posts appeared on twitter in support of Sharif, after a copy of the JIT’s summons was tweeted by some journalists on the social networking site.

A post on the official account of the PM’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party (PML-N) immediately confirmed Sharif would appear before the panel investigating the Panama Papers case.

At least 800 users and 1,435 tweets in just 11 minutes made #MainBheeNawazHoon a Trending Topic in Pakistan.

According to @trendinaliaPK, the hashtag began trending in Pakistan in just 11 minutes.

PM formally expels senator from party

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has formally approved the expulsion of Senator Nehal Hashmi from the party, it emerged on Monday.

According to the details, the convener of ‘National Ethics and Discipline Committee’ of ruling PML-N, Raja Zafar Ul Haq, conducted an inquiry into a diatribe by the senator against members of the Joint Investigation Team and judiciary.

The committee forwarded the report to PM Sharif, confirming that Hashmi made the controversial speech, and the prime minister approved the recommendations of the committee.

Raja Zafar Ul Haq confirmed that the speech by the PML-N Sindh stalwart was against the party discipline and its policy and so the premier gave a green light to recommendations of to expel him.

Hashmi came into the limelight on Wednesday after a video surfaced in which he can be heard threatening the judiciary in a veiled reference.

The video, which went viral on the internet shows a disgruntled Senator Nehal warning rivals and ‘some honourable officials associated with top institutions’ of dire consequences if they continued their concerns with the accountability of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Hashmi’s party membership was revoked on May 31 after the prime minister house took a notice of his speech.

“A show-cause notice has also been issued to the senator,” said Dr Asif Kirmani, the adviser to Prime Minister on Political Affairs.

“We have also demanded his (Hashmi’s) resignation from Senate,” State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said, in a statement.

Later, Hashmi tendered his resignation to Chairman Senate.