Panama papers case in Supreme Court: Judges and Lawyers interesting debate
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ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (APP): A five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali Thursday observed that contents of the speech would not be enough to prove some one guilty and adjourned the hearing of Panama Leaks case till November 30.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz ul Hassan made this observation while hearing four identical petitions filed by PTI and others seeking investigation into the Panama
Papers.
Hearing the case, the Chief Justice asked the counsel of the petitioner Hamid Khan to provide concrete proofs before the court that the London flats were purchased illegally.
Justice Khosa remarked that the court could not conduct scrutiny of anyone's entire life and the court would only restrict itself to the extent of these petitions.
During the course of proceedings, Petitioner Advocate Tariq Asad made request to the court for submitting an application before the court which was not allowed by the bench.
This is not appropriate to file application just during the hearing of the case and the court is only concentrating on the main petition. If the court will admit every application then it would not be possible to hear the ain case, the bench warned.
The Chief Jusitce remarked that six to seven requests are being submitted in this case on daily basis.
"The main case will never end if we will accepting these requests," the Chief Justice observed.
He remarked that the court would entertain these petitions at some appropriate time.
Tariq Asad said that he was the first person who filed petition regarding Panama Papers in April this year. The chief justice remarked that "You had requested that this case shoul be taken up by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)."
Advocate Asad Manzoor Butt representing Jamaat-i-Islami in the case said that NAB and FIA were not doing their job properly.
The CJP remarked that it seems that officials of the NAB and FIA were only to take salaries as they make excuses by saying that the case does not fall into their jurisdiction.
Advocates Hamid Khan and Naeem Bukhari counsels for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) appeared before the court and informed that International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed Panama Papers Leaks on Aril 3, 2016 and added that Prime Minister's children names were also in the Leaks along with many other Pakistanis.
Hamid Khan apprised the court that the prime minister had delivered three speeches after the issue of Panama Papers.
The counsel of the PTI also read out all the three speeches during the hearing of the case.
Justice Azmat Saeed remarked that British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, incorporated in 1994, were not the owners of the flats based in London's Mayfair area in 1999.
The bench asked the PTI counsel to bring solid evidence regarding ownership of flats to the court.
Salman Butt counsel of the Prime Minister apprised the court that the petitioner's counsel was only targetting a specific person not in general.
The Chief Justice observed that the process of accountability would cover all others but it should be started from any one.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked that as per prime minister's speech he let his children do the business by selling Jeddah steel mill, London flats were not mentioned in his speech.
Counsels of the Prime Minister and his children also filed objections over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf`s proofs with request to the court for rejecting such documents terming them not valid according to the "Qanoon e Shahdat".
