PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Tuesday filed a petition with the Peshawar High Court seeking the prime minister’s disqualification over the failure to declare his family’s nine offshore companies in the nomination papers for general elections.

In the petition, Mohammad Ayaz Majid, a former additional advocate general, requested the court to declare that Nawaz Sharif had violated Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution by not disclosing offshore companies of family members and therefore, he was not qualified to hold the prime minister’s office.

He requested the court to declare that it was obligatory for the National Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation Agency to take action on different news items related to the said offshore companies and that keeping mum on any such offence amounted to professional misconduct and an offence.

Insists Sharif didn’t declare family’s offshore companies in election nomination papers

The respondents in the petition are Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Mamnoon Hussain, Election Commission of Pakistan, cabinet, interior and foreign secretaries, federal customs collector, Federal Investigation Agency director general, and National Accountability Bureau and Federal Board of Revenue chairmen.

The petitioner said recently, the national and international media reported that around 220 Pakistanis, including the family of the prime minister, had offshore companies abroad.

He said nine offshore companies were registered in the name of the prime minister’s family members, including sons Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, and daughter Maryam Nawaz.

The petitioner alleged that since the country’s creation, different people had been looting exchequer and therefore, it was time for the courts to interfere to check it.

He said no Pakistani was allowed to shift foreign currency exceeding certain limits abroad without following certain procedure and the violation of that procedure was an offence.

The petitioner said the prime minister failed to suggest the trail of the shifting of such a huge amount abroad.

He alleged that the matter pertained to the export of currency, tax evasion and money laundering, which were offences under different laws.

The petitioner claimed the formation of a judicial commission to probe the matter and find out the truth in the presence of the prime minister and president was not possible and that it was also against the principle of natural justice, so the removal of the two was imperative for independent inquiry.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2016