Decision on Sharif's resignation to be made after review of all material: Pak SC

Islamabad [Pakistan], July 18 (ANI): The three-member special Supreme Court implementation bench hearing the Panama Papers case on Tuesday observed that it would take a decision on Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's disqualification or sending the matter to an accountability court after reviewing all the material in his regard. The bench resumed the proceedings in Panama Papers case after the petitioners presented their arguments in favour of the Joint Investigation Team's (JIT) final report a day earlier. Reading out the original 13 questions posed by the Supreme Court to the JIT, Sharif family's lawyer Khawaja Harris said, the court, in its April 20 judgment, had not ordered for reopening of any case against PM Sharif. Harris accused the JIT of including a probe of 'assets beyond means' in its investigation. Justice Ijazul Ahsan observed that the main issue in the case is to probe the London money trail as the money trail of the London properties is a complicated saga and number of issues are related to the court's 13 questions. He further remarked that the court will decide if the JIT's recommendations have to be implemented. Echoing similar sentiments, Justice Ejaz said the JIT has only given its recommendations while any order on the issue will be passed by the court. "Facts were hidden and answers [were] not provided to the JIT," he observed. Someone claimed they do not remember while others said their accountant may know, Geo News quoted Justice Ejaz as saying to the counsel for the respondent. The court on Monday said that the Joint Investigation Team's (JIT) findings against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family are not obligatory on the apex court. The apex court questioned whether Sharif received monthly salary from FZE, an offshore company, as revealed in the JIT report. According to the report, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh observed that the JIT obtained documents related to FZE through Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) from United Arab Emirates under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law as those were certified and not source documents. Meanwhile, Justice Ejaz observed that it was debatable whether the documents could be accepted without questioning the people who signed them. The top court is likely to either put Sharif on trial on corruption charges or even disqualify him. However, the few are expecting the judges to dismiss the case after the JIT submitted a damaging report into Sharif's family wealth. (ANI)