Islamabad
After the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in landmark Panamagate decision, Supreme Court of Pakistan has now announced to probe all Pakistanis named in the Panama leaks.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court formed a 2-member bench to investigate the involvement of all the Pakistanis in Panama Papers scandal.
Supreme Court has served notices to all Pakistanis whose names have had appeared in Panama leaks and will begin the case hearing on November 23.
The two-member bench will be headed by Justice Ijaz Afzal and include Justice Maqbool Baqir. The bench has been formed upon the appeals filed by Jamaat Islami (JI) chief Siraj-ul-Haq and Advocate Tariq Asad.
Around 259 Pakistanis had reportedly founded companies with Mosack Fonseca according to Panama Papers leaked by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in April 2016.
Pakistan’s ruling elite Nawaz family was hit the hardest by the leaks as a case filed based on the Panama Paper led to the ouster of the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court on July 28 which is hailed as a political game-changer in Pakistan.
Nawaz Sharif and his family are still facing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references filed upon the advice of Supreme Court in the same Panama Papers case.
Jamaat Islami chief Siraj-Ul-Haq, in his petition, has stressed that Pakistan was making supreme sacrifices in the war against terror but the government officials, politicians and business executives were busy making investments in offshore tax havens through illegal means.
Seeking an injunction against 259 citizens, the petitioner requested the top court to order five respondents — the federal government through the parliamentary affairs ministry, secretaries of law and justice, finance and cabinet division and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) — to arrest all those who had invested ‘stolen money’ in offshore companies and bring the public money back to the country.
It is worth mentioning that as many as 259 Pakistanis who had invested in offshore companies were named in the Panama Papers.