Panama Papers: Pakistan’s apex court rejects objections raised by Nawaz Sharif’s son against investigative team

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the objections raised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son against members of a team investigating the Sharif family’s overseas businesses in connection with the Panama Papers case.

Hussain Nawaz had pleaded the apex court urging it to remove two members of the six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) the court had appointed in April to investigate corruption allegations against members of the Sharif family.

A three-member special bench heard the Hussain’s plea in which he had said that two members – Bilal Rasool of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and Amer Aziz of the State Bank of Pakistan – should be removed as members of the JIT, allegeing that they were not impartial.

He had said the presence of these two members may affect the fairness and impartiality of the JIT and its findings.

Hussain’s counsel, Khawaja Haris, had alleged before the bench that the two members have been “abusive”, Dawn reported.

Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who headed the bench, dismissed the accusation and ordered the JIT to continue its probe. Khan also said the two members were experts in white-collar crime.

“We will not change any member of the JIT, nor will we prevent someone from doing their …read more