Panama JIT prepares to finalize report as SC deadline nears

Joint Investigation Team (JIT), constituted by Supreme Court (SC) to probe much-hyped Panama Leaks case, has geared up to prepare the final report as the deadline comes near.

The investigation has entered into final phase as all the six members that include Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Additional Director General Wajid Zia, Military Intelligence's Brig Kamran Khurshid, National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Director Irfan Naeem Mangi, State Bank of Pakistan's Amer Aziz, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan's (SECP) Executive Director Bilal Rasool and Inter-Services Intelligence's Brig Muhammad Nauman Saeed are meeting to complete the case file.

The team will be reviewing statements recoded by different leaders and political personalities while they will also go through the submitted documents.

It is to be mentioned here that JIT will present its final report to SC on July 10.

During these seven weeks, JIT interrogated eight members of Sharif family including Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, daughter Maryam Nawaz, son-in-law Captain Safdar, cousin Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and brother-in-law Ishaq Dar.

On April 20, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had announced Panama Leaks case decision comprising of 540 pages, saying that the court issued a split ruling calling for a JIT. Two of the five judges went further, branding Sharif "dishonest" and saying he should be disqualified, but they were outnumbered.

Panama Papers had published a leak of documents belonging to Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in April 2016 creating uproar in Pakistan among other countries. The leak was studied by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and stated names of incumbent as well as former leaders of the world who owned shell companies.

Opposition parties in Pakistan saw offshore companies owned by daughter and two sons of PM Nawaz as means to either stash wealth in foreign accounts or purchase assets abroad.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami and reserved the verdict in February after conducting hearings on daily basis.