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Breaking: SC Disqualifies PM Nawaz Sharif

Islamabad (July 28, 2017): Supreme Court on Friday announced its verdict in Panama Case, disqualifying Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not being Sadiq and Ameen.

The five-member larger bench pronounced its verdict at Court Room No 1.

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The court directed that all the materials and cases be sent to NAB for filing references against Prime Minister and other family members.

The court directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to immediately de-notify the Prime Minister as Member of National Assembly.

The court ruled that the Prime Minister did not declare FZE company and hence committed missdeclaration.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been asked to de-notify the prime minister from his National Assembly seat to fulfill the technicalities of implementing the order.

The Supreme Court said the ECP should de-seat the PM for not disclosing his role in the Dubai-based Capital FZE company in his nomination papers, saying that this meant he was not “honest”.

Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who had headed the apex court’s implementation bench following its April 20 order on the Panama Papers case, announced that the larger bench had unanimously deemed PM Sharif unfit for holding office and would also order an accountability court to open references against him and his family.

The judges ruled that he had been dishonest to parliament and the courts, and could not be deemed fit for his office.

Justice Khan said that the bench had recommended that all material collected by the joint investigation team (JIT) tasked with probing the Sharif family’s financial dealings would be sent to an accountability court within six weeks.

The bench said that on the basis of this information, cases would be opened against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar; MNA Captain Muhammad Safdar; Maryam, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz; as well as the premier.

A judgement on these references should be announced within six months, he said.

The court directed National Accountability Court (NAB) to file references against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other family members of Sharif family.

The court further directed filing reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

The court said that a retired Supreme Court judge would be appointed to monitor the NAB references against Prime Minister and his family members.

The apex court directed the accountability courts to hear the references and decided these within six months.

Petitioners Sirajul Haq, AML Chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, PTI leaders, PML-N leaders and others were also present in the court room to hear the verdict.

The verdict was read out by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who headed the implementation bench of the apex court.

It is to be mentioned here that hearing of Panama Papers case by the five-members larger bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa started in January this year.

The five-judge Supreme Court bench delivered its much-anticipated first order in the case on April 20.

In a 3-2 split decision, the majority judges ruled that the available evidence was insufficient to disqualify the prime minister outright and directed for the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate the case and collect evidence, if any, showing that “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif or any of his dependents or benamidar owns, possesses or acquired assets or any interest therein disproportionate to their known means of income”.

The apex court also observed that after the JIT’s final report is presented, “the matter of disqualification [of Nawaz Sharif] shall be considered”.

Justice Khosa and Justice Gulzar, who disqualified the Prime Minister, also had directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to issue a notification of the PM’s disqualification, an opinion that was endorsed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

But the majority judgment by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan had afforded the prime minister and his children another opportunity to explain their position before a specially constituted six-man Joint Inves­tigating Team (JIT).

The JIT, formed in light of the apex court’s April 20 judgment to probe the Sharif family’s money trail, submitted its 60-day investigation report to the court on July 10.

The report highlighted the failure of the Sharif family to provide a money trail for its London apartments and claimed the prime minister and his children own assets beyond their known sources of income.

Following the report’s submission, the special bench — headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed — issued notices to the parties to submit their responses.

The special implementation bench reserved its decision on July 21 after hearing arguments over the JIT report from both sides.

In his remarks at the last hearing, Justice Ejaz stated that the bench was already reviewing the matter of the prime minister’s disqualification, while Justice Ijaz remarked that the court would not back down from its decision.

The petitioners in the case were PTI chief Imran Khan, Sheikh Rasheed, and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, while the respondents are the prime minister, members of his family, as well as several government-related officials and departments.

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