ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided to approach the Supreme Court to become a party in the Hudaibya Paper Mills (HPM) case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, incumbent chief minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and former finance minister Ishaq Dar when the case is reopened by the court.

The decision was made at a meeting of the legal wing of the PTI presided over by party chairman Imran Khan at his residence here on Sunday.

According to PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry, the party will soon file an appeal in the apex court to become a party in the case that was disposed of by the court. However, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed an appeal for reopening the case.

Through public meetings, Sharif seeks to pressurise SC into reversing its disqualification decision, tweets Imran

The meeting which was attended, among others, by Mr Chaudhry, who is a lawyer, and Dr Babar Awan, also decided to take a “decisive legal action” against a media group and its owner.

The meeting also considered moving the court against concessional packages given to politicians under the National Reconciliation Ordinance during the eras of former presidents Pervez Musharraf and Asif Ali Zardari. The meeting observed that no legal action had been taken on the two NROs so far, the spokesman said.

Last month the NAB filed a second appeal with the Supreme Court for reopening the HPM reference.

Although the Sharif family heaved a sigh of relief because of the Dec 15 judgement of the Supreme Court that dismissed the NAB’s appeal for reopening of the reference, the bureau’s move to file another appeal is said to be a source of concern for the Sharifs and Mr Dar.

The NAB had filed the HPM reference against the Sharif family after the 1999 military coup which toppled the Nawaz Sharif government. In the case the prosecution alleged that the Sharif family in the 1990s had used the company to launder Rs1.2 billion ($10 million) out of the country.

While Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Capt Mohammad Safdar are already facing Panama Papers references in the Accountability Court of Islamabad and Mr Sharif’s sons Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz have been declared proclaimed offenders in three references, the HPM reference is the only case in which Shahbaz Sharif can face a trial.

Interestingly, the NAB chairman has also decided to bring Mr Dar back to the country from the United Kingdom through Interpol in a separate assets reference. “Bring Ishaq Dar back to the country through Interpol because he is not suffering from a disease that cannot be treated in Pakistan,” the NAB chairman said at a recent meeting.

The HPM reference was filed against Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif, Mr Shahbaz’s son and member of the National Assembly Hamza Shahbaz and other members of the family over Mr Dar’s confessional statement before a magistrate in Lahore on April 25, 2000.

The reference was afterwards dismissed by the Lahore High Court’s referee judge Justice Sardar Shamim on March 11, 2014 in response to a petition filed in 2011 on the ground that Mr Dar had been pressurised to record the statement. The NAB did not challenge the referee judge’s decision to quash the reference in the apex court.

The matter resurfaced during the hearing of the Panama Papers case.

Imran’s tweet

The PTI chief said on Sunday the motive behind Nawaz Sharif’s public meetings was to pressurise the Supreme Court to reverse its decision to disqualify him for being involved in corruption unearthed in Panama Papers Leaks.

“Now the motive behind Nawaz Sharif’s public meetings has become evident with his declaration that the apex court will have to take back its decision on his disqualification,” Mr Khan said in a tweet.

He said Mr Sharif was seeking to build public pressure and in the process had let slip the fake sincerity in his desperate cry “Mujhe kyun nikala”.

He said the ousted prime minister’s problem was that he had always played with his own umpires and wanted a judge like Justice Qayyum whom he could influence to write a judgement. “Hence the Supreme Court’s decision traumatised him and has led him to launch a campaign attacking country’s superior judiciary,” Mr Khan added.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2018