ISLAMABAD: Days ahead of the planned siege of Islamabad by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Supreme Court will take up on Oct 20 the much-anticipated Panamagate case seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members.

The PTI has announced Oct 30 as the date for siege but there are indications that the party may change it by a day or two.

A three-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Jus­tice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain will hear five separate petitions on the Panama Papers scam.

SC has been asked to disqualify Nawaz Sharif, his son-in-law and Ishaq Dar

One by one the court will hear the petitions — moved by the PTI, Jamaat-i-Islami, Advocate Tariq Asad, Barrister Zafarullah Khan of the Watan Party and All Pakistan Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

The case was fixed for Oct 20 after the PTI through an application on Oct 10 asked the court for an early hearing of its petition.

A panel of senior lawyers Hamid Khan and Naeem Bokhari will represent the PTI while Asad Manzoor Butt will appear on behalf of the JI. Rest of the petitioners will appear before the court in person.

Immediately after the petitions of the PTI and JI were filed, they were returned by the court’s registrar, who said that the petition moved in the name of the party chief was frivolous. The decision was challenged before the court with the PTI arguing that to call its petition frivolous was not only insulting but degrading and defamatory.

The chief justice after a hearing held in his chamber on Sept 27 accepted all appeals by setting aside objections of the registrar’s office and held that the objections to the maintainability of the petitions were ill-founded. These petitions will now be taken up by a three-judge bench.

The PTI has sought disqualification of Prime Minister Sharif, his son-in-law retired Capt Muhammad Safdar and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for their alleged involvement in the Panamagate scam.

The PTI has urged the court to order the recovery of the alleged looted / laundered money along with the properties purchased thro­ugh British Virgin Islands and companies in other tax havens.

It alleged that the prime minister and his family members and Mr Dar had been identified as money launderers, currency smugglers and buyers of expensive foreign properties in the name of children. They have allegedly set up offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and other secret havens, made bogus foreign currency accounts, flouted legal control over foreign declarations, set up a steel mills [Gulf Steel Mills] in the UAE without disclosing the manner in which the money was transferred to Dubai, sold the same admittedly for $9 million and held the amount without declaration.

JI wants arrests

The JI through its chief Sirajul Haq asked the court to order the federal government through the ministry of parliamentary affairs, secretaries of law and justice, finance, cabinet division and the National Accountability Bureau to arrest the suspected culprits, recover the public money and bring it back to the country because it had been illegally transferred from Pakistan to offshore companies.

Mr Asad in his petition sought the appointment of a high-level judicial commission to probe into the investment made by the prime minister’s family and others allegedly through offshore companies.

He said that the requested commission should not only help expose the premier’s family but also others allegedly involved in money laundering and tax evasion like retired Gen Pervez Musharraf, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, former interior minister Rehman Malik, property tycoon Malik Riaz, the Saifullah family, etc.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan in his petition pleaded that the Supreme Court should order constitution of a parliamentary committee or panel to look into the Panamagate scandal and if there was disagreement on this issue in the parliament then political parties should seek a vote of no confidence against the prime minister.

Sheikh Rashid asked the court to appoint an inquiry commission on the lines of the Memogate Commission to investigate the allegations levelled against the prime minister’s family.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2016