Panama Papers case: Pakistan SC accepts Nawaz Sharif and his family's plea against disqualification

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted a plea to form a five-judge bench to hear the review petitions of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his children son-in-law and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar challenging his disqualification in the Panama Papers scandal.

The separate petitions were filed by Sharif and his family against the judgment on 28 July, that disqualified 67-year-old Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that a corruption case be filed against his family and Dar over the scandal.

Sharif, his daughter Maryam, sons Hussain and Hasan son-in-law Muhammad Safdar and Dar in their petitions asked the court to review the judgment as it violated several provisions of law.

A three-member Bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Kha and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazu Ehsan took up the petitions. Lawyer of Sharif’s children, Salman Akram Raja, asked the Bench to make a larger Bench as the decision was issued by five members and a three-member panel was not empowered to head the review petitions.

He referred to a written plea already submitted by Sharif’s children against the hearing of review petition by three-member bench instead of a five-judge bench. After a preliminary argument, the judges accepted the plea and announced to ask the Chief Justice to form a five-member panel for hearing the review petition.

The panel postponed any further hearing until Wednesday. Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Harris was also present during the hearing and argued in favour of a larger bench. Following the judgment, National Accountability Burea has filed four corruption cases against them last week.

The five-member bench unanimously disqualified Sharif for failing to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables salary from the UAE-based Capital FZE company of his son.