ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday issued a notice to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for Sept 6 in connection with five identical petitions seeking his disqualification on grounds of alleged concealment of assets, money laundering and tax evasion.

A full bench of the commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, heard the case and held that the points raised in the petitions needed to be clarified by the respondent.

The petitions have been filed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Awami Muslim League (AML), and an individual, Prof Waheed Kamal.

On another petition filed by Nawabzada Salahuddin of the PTI, the ECP also issued a notice to the prime minister’s son-in-law, retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, to explain why he had concealed the offshore companies owned by his spouse, Maryam Safdar.

PTI Senator Liaquat Ali Khan Tarakai was also asked to explain his position on the ownership of an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands. A disqualification petition against the PTI senator, whose son is a provincial minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was filed by ANP leader Bushra Gohar.

In his arguments, PPP secretary general Sardar Latif Khosa alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, the chief minister of Punjab, were defaulters of different banks and were not even qualified to contest the elections.

He said Hussain Nawaz had declared Maryam Safdar the sole shareholder in an offshore company, but the company had not been mentioned by Captain Safdar in a list of his wife’s assets. Similarly, he said, Captain Safdar did not declare his spouse’s agricultural property either.

He said Hussain Nawaz and Maryam Safdar were quite young when the offshore companies were registered in the United Kingdom, alleging that Prime Minister Sharif had lied that he sold his steel mills to buy flats in London.

Mr Khosa said the flats in Park Lane were bought in 1993 and 1995. Hence, the statement that the steel mills in Saudi Arabia were sold to purchase the flats was false.

He argued that the prime minister was the real owner of the offshore companies and had concealed the ownership in his statement of assets submitted to the ECP.

He contended that concealment of assets and mis-declaration fell within the ambit of corrupt practices, which entails a sentence of three years in prison.

PTI’s counsel Anis Hashmi said Nawaz Sharif declared property worth Rs160 million in 2011 and Rs260 million in 2013 and alleged that he had evaded Rs50 million in taxes by simply lying.

Referring to the PM’s address to the nation on May 16, where Nawaz Sharif had stated that his father set up a company in Dubai in the 1970s after their industries were nationalised, Mr Hashmi claimed that the foreign asset had never been mentioned by the prime minister, who had also served as provincial finance minister and chief minister of Punjab before his three terms as prime minister.

The arguments of Ishtiaq Gujjar, who represented the PAT, revolved around the Model Town incident. AML’s counsel Abdul Razzaq also argued that tax evasion, money-laundering and concealment of assets warranted disqualification.

But speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s proceedings, PML-N MNAs Daniyal Aziz and Talal Chaudhry said there was nothing new in these charges and claimed that these allegations had already been levelled against PM Sharif in the 1980s and 90s, to no avail.

They maintained that the PTI was intimidated by the PML-N government’s successes, especially since all their tactics — referring to the 2014 sit-in outside parliament and the subsequent formation of an inquiry commission on electoral rigging — had failed.

Mr Chaudhry said that even though she had not yet contested an election, opponents were already fearful of Maryam, the PM’s daughter.

Media gag lifted

The ECP finally lifted the veil of secrecy from its proceedings and allowed the media to cover judicial proceedings after lawyers threatened a boycott during the hearing of petitions against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

During proceedings on Wednesday, an ECP official asked a mediaperson to leave the courtroom, but the latter refused, and asked for a written order to the effect. At this point, Sardar Latif Khosa intervened, saying, “This is not a military court” and threatened a lawyers’ boycott if the press was not allowed to cover proceedings.

This demand was also supported by other lawyers, compelling the chief election commissioner to announce that the media was allowed to cover judicial proceedings of the ECP. Though there were no written orders to this effect, the ECP had been denying journalists access to the courtroom during hearing of election petitions.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2016