Top-level PML-N huddle mulls party's legal and political strategy post JIT report
Top PML-N officials met at PM House on Tuesday to discuss the party's legal and political strategy following the submission to the apex court of a damning inquiry report probing the Sharif family's wealth a day earlier.
The 'unofficial' meeting was held to review the Supreme Court-sanctioned joint investigation team's report, according to DawnNews.
Sources said the PML-N's legal team briefed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the JIT report. Participants of the meeting also discussed points of argument regarding the report that could be raised in court.
Read complete text of the JIT report here.
PM Nawaz in a meeting last night directed his legal team to prepare their response, which will be filed before the Supreme Court.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Minister of Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal and Water and Minister of Petroleum Khaqan Abbasi as well as Barrister Zafarullah and the rest of the PML-N's legal team.
The JIT report, spread over 10 volumes, declared that the prime minister's sons ─ Hussain and Hassan Nawaz ─ were used as proxies to build family assets.
The report said the financial structure and health of companies in Pakistan that are linked to the Sharifs do not substantiate the family’s wealth and a significant disparity exists between the wealth declared by the Sharifs and the means through which they generated income.
The JIT pointed out a failure on the part of the Sharifs to produce the required information that would confirm their “known sources of income”, saying that prima facie, it amounted to saying that they were not able to reconcile their assets with their means of income.
PML-N leaders, in a press conference after the submission of the report, announced that the party would contest the report in the court, and labelled it 'worthless trash'.