PESHAWAR: Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict in Panama Papers case and said that the decision substantially promoted the cause of accountability of the ruling elites.

In a statement issued from the party central secretariat here on Thursday, he said that he believed that the verdict was also an indictment of the existing system of accountability which had been used more for political victimisation of the opponents of the sitting government than conducting an across-the-board accountability.

“A case in point is the so-called Ehtesab Commission in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that practically collapsed when it attempted to touch cases against the present chief minister and some of his cabinet members,” he said.

PPP, PTI say Nawaz morally bound to step down as PM

“Unfortunately those who are very enthusiastic in making others accountable do not check their own house,” he pointed out. He said that it was high time that the parliament should work on urgent basis to shape a constitutional machinery for conducting an effective and across-the-board accountability so that the judicial branch did not have to create joint investigation teams for every case.

“A fair law and accountability system cannot be person or party specific. It should hit every person and element involved in corruption,” said Asfandyar Wali.

Pakistan Peoples Party provincial vice-president Syed Ayub Shah said that the decision was in fact against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family and he was morally bound to step down. “The PM himself should feel it seriously that how he will face the JIT,” he said and added that it was a lesson for the PML-N top leadership.

Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference at his party’s secretariat here on Thursday, Qaumi Watan Party provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Sherpao urged all political parties to respect the court verdict.

He said that all parties should focus on solution of the problems being faced the nation. He said that no one should try to score political points on the issue.

Mr Sherpao, who is also Khyber Pakhtunkhwa senior minister, said that all politicians should respect the SC verdict and wait for the JIT report.

He appreciated the decision of the court for establishing JIT to reach the actual facts and figures and make a decision.

In Charsadda, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf central vice-president Fazal Mohammad Khan said that there was no moral justification for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to stick to the power, adding that he should immediately resign.

Talking to mediapersons, he claimed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was no more ‘Saqid and Amin’. He said that the SC decision had proved that PTI chief Imran Khan’s stand in the case was justified.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2017