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Today's Paper | April 28, 2024

Published 07 Nov, 2017 07:42pm

Monitoring judge, time bar will not influence trial, SC says in detailed Panamagate review judgement

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a 23-page detailed verdict on the review petitions filed against the July 28 Panama Papers verdict which resulted in Nawaz Sharif's disqualification.

The detailed verdict says that the petitions failed to point out any serious discrepancies or mistakes in the Panama Papers verdict and the facts entailing the disqualification of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif could not be disputed by the petitioner.

It assures that the observations made in the Panama Papers verdict are of a temporary nature as the accountability court is free to make its own decisions based on the facts presented to it. The accountability court also has the right to dismiss unfounded evidence, the judgement says.

The directions to compete the trial within six months are to ensure the case is wrapped up in time and does not affect the trial court's decision, the detailed judgement says. It also says that the appointment of monitoring judge is nothing out of the ordinary and was done to prevent carelessness on part of the investigators.

The bench also dismissed the argument that there was no connection between captain Safdar and the Avenfield apartments as, it said, his spouse Maryam Nawaz "prima facie happens to be the beneficial owner" of the property.

The review petitions against the July 28 Panama Papers judgement filed by the Sharif family and Ishaq Dar had already been dismissed by the apex court via a short order in September.

The PML-N had expressed disappointment at the dismissal of the review petitions and feared that Sharif family will not get a fair trial in accountability court if a SC monitoring judge oversees the trial proceedings.

Meanwhile, by introducing an amendment, the party has ensured Nawaz's return as the party's president while it grapples with an internal power struggle between Nawaz and his younger sibling, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

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