Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday observed that documents submitted in the Panama Papers case proved that then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif received a salary from a UAE-based company in August 2013.
The observation came as the apex court’s five-member bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, resumed hearing of the review petitions filed by the Sharif family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against the July 28 judgement that ousted Sharif from office, Geo News reported.
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Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan are the other members of the apex court bench.
Senior counsel Khawaja Haris, representing Sharif, argued that his client never claimed to receive any salary from FZE Capital.
Asserting that a proper trial was needed for the lawmaker’s disqualification, Haris argued that if just his election was termed void then Sharif would only have been barred for one term.
Justice Ejaz remarked that Sharif did not declare a salary account and added that documents submitted in the court state that he received a salary in his FZE Capital account in August 2013.
He observed that the relevant record in this regard was present in the JIT’s Volume IX.
Terming the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report incomplete, Harris said that most of the documents were received from sources and had faults in them.
Justice Ejaz responded that faults in the report will “benefit your case”.
“You will have a complete chance for cross-examination in the trial court,” he said.
Justice Ejaz said the apex court bench has not considered the JIT report the “undeniable truth” and did not make its decision on that basis.
When Harris argued that the court should have directed the NAB to file references if it considered them fit, the bench responded that the references would not have been filed had the matter been left to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alone.
The hearing was adjourned until Friday after the Finance Minister’s counsel Shahid Hamid presented his arguments and stated that his client’s assets did not grow overnight but expanded over a course of 15 years.
