ISLAMABAD: The Joint Investigating Team (JIT) tasked with investigating corruption allegations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children has sought from the Election Commission of Pakistan asset declarations submitted to the electoral body by the premier and his son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar, Geo News quoted sources as saying on Thursday.
According to the sources, the JIT, set up by the Supreme Court in the light of its landmark ruling in Panama Papers case, has sought the prime minister’s assets declarations from 2013 to 2016.
Headed by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Additional Director Wajid Zia, the probe panel also consists of representatives from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Military Intelligence (MI), the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the State Bank of Pakistan.
The Supreme Court on April 20 ruled there was insufficient evidence to order Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s removal from office over corruption allegations levelled by the opposition, but it ordered further investigations.
Two of five judges on the court bench recommended Sharif should step down, saying he was dishonest “to the nation as well as to the parliament”, but they were out voted.
Presenting its 549-page judgment , the court ordered a joint investigation team be formed to look into allegations around three of Sharif’s four children using offshore companies to buy properties in London.
The team has two months to complete its inquiry, after which a special bench will decide what action to take, the court said in a ruling that opens with the epigraph from Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather”: “Behind every great fortune there is a crime”.
The prime minister and his children deny any wrongdoing.
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