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ISLAMABAD: The government announced on Wednesday that the proposed 24th constitutional amendment would not benefit Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panamagate case, as he has already forgone his right of appeal.
Addressing a press conference at the Press Information Department, Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said: “We should not link the Panama Papers case with everything. It is a question of the right of appeal of over 200 million people.”
The government introduced the 24th constitutional amendment in the National Assembly on Nov 18 seeking the right of appeal in a suo motu notice taken by the Supreme Court.
Ms Aurangzeb argued that the Panamagate case was not a suo motu case as it was being tried on petitions filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and other opposition leaders. In fact, the bill was introduced by the opposition long before the Panama Papers leaks had surfaced, she said.
No money trail proved, says Imran
A similar bill was introduced by Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Ayaz Soomro over eight months ago as a simple act of parliament.
Mr Soomro told the lower house on Tuesday that he agreed that he had introduced the bill but he had reservations over the timing of its tabling in the National Assembly, adding that this was probably why his bill had not been clubbed with the government’s bill.
To this, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that the bill had been deferred on Mr Soomro’s requests when he was abroad for medical treatment.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters after the hearing of the Panamagate case in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, PTI chairman Imran Khan claimed that the prime minister had failed to produce documents showing the trail of money used to purchase his property in London. Even the judges had said so, he said.
The PTI chief claimed that they had found important evidence in the documents the prime minister had submitted to the court. Even the SC had observed that the rulers had lied before the nation, parliament and the court, he added.
Quoting the document, he claimed that the steel mills set up by the prime minister’s father, Mian Muhammad Sharif, in Dubai, which was sold in 1980, was running at a loss.
“This document shows that the steel mill in Dubai was incurring a loss of 2.6 million dirhams,” Mr Khan said while waving a document. “If the steel mill was running at a loss, where did they get money to purchase the London property?” he asked.
Mr Khan said when there was no money for investment, the question of it being transferred to London via Jeddah or Qatar did not arise.
“The case is finished today,” he declared.
The PTI chief also lambasted the government for submitting a new “trust deed” between the prime minister’s son Hussain Nawaz and daughter Maryam Nawaz about London’s apartments. He said the government had submitted the document after withdrawing a similar document saying that “wrong photocopies” had been submitted by mistake.
He accused the National Accountability Bureau of sitting on the documents and said the party’s lawyer, Naeem Bokhari, had requested the Supreme Court to order “criminal proceedings” against NAB for its inaction.
Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2016
