ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided to stop pursuing important cases in the Supreme Court till the conclusion of Panama Papers case investigation by a joint investigation team (JIT) formed by the Supreme Court.

“We have decided to stop following other important petitions, including the one related to the Asghar Khan case, a reference filed against the National Accountability Bureau chairman with the Supreme Judicial Council and a petition that the government is making the judiciary and the JIT controversial,” PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry told Dawn on Sunday.

He said the PTI believed that the JIT would complete its investigation by July 10, and till that time the party did not want to concentrate on any other judicial matter.

The spokesman alleged that under a “planned move”, the ruling PML-N had launched a campaign to malign the judiciary and the JIT in an effort to make them controversial.

PML-N has launched a campaign to malign JIT and judiciary, says Fawad

The JIT constituted by the SC has been probing the sons of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz — on charges of money-laundering and tax evasion in the light of the Panama Papers leaks.

The PTI has prepared a petition against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seeking investigations into the allegations regarding receiving money from the founder of Al Qaeda organisation Osama bin Laden for the election campaign of the PML-N during 1990s. But the petition has not been filed so far.

Similarly, the party had also announced filing of a petition seeking implementation of the SC’s earlier verdict in the famous Asghar Khan case.

In its verdict, the court had called for an investigation by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on charges that politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, had received money from the army generals in the 1990s in order to defeat the Pakistan Peoples Party headed by Benazir Bhutto at that time.

Fawad Chaudhry said these two petitions had been drafted despite the fact that the FIA and other institutions were not cooperating with them and they were facing some difficulties in drafting the petitions.

The PTI, on April 24, filed a reference with the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for the removal of NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry from his post for refusing to reopen alleged money-laundering cases against Prime Minister Sharif.

In the petition the PTI stressed that the NAB chairman’s performance had already been questioned over the course of the Panama Papers case hearings.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2017