Pamagate verdict on Thursday, much at stake for waz Sharif

Islamabad, April 18: The Supreme Court of Pakistan will announce its verdict in the Pamagate case on April 20, Thursday, after it added the matter in its cause list on Tuesday. Confirming the news, ARY News tweeted: “PAMA VERDICT has been filised. Announcement will be in 60 hours.” Last year, the Pama Papers scandal rocked governments, exposed high-profile persolities, triggered scores of investigations around the world and dealt a blow to Pama as an offshore fincial hub.

Pakistan Prime Minister waz Sharif’s alleged wrongdoing came to light as part of a massive leak of secret files from a Pamanian law firm that specialises in setting up offshore companies in tax havens. A trove of 11.5 million digital records from the Pamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca last year revealed how many of the world’s wealthy used offshore companies to stash assets.

According to the Pama Papers, three of Sharif’s four children — Maryam, Hasan and Hussain — were owners of offshore companies and “were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies”. But Sharif and his family have dismissed the allegations of money laundering and denied any wrongdoing.

Since the Pama Papers in June 2016, opposition parties have been jumping at the opportunity to register their protests and mobilise supporters to rally against waz Sharif. “I can say with surety that... not a single penny went out of Pakistan,” emphasised PM Sharif on the floor of parliament on May 16, 2016, soon after details emerged in the Pama Papers. The opposition staged a walkout as Sharif proposed a parliamentary commission to probe the allegations. In the immediate aftermath, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was forced to resign after the leak showed his family sheltered assets offshore.

The petitioners in Pakistan Advocate Tariq Asad, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq, PTI chief Imran Khan and Awami Muslim League head Sheikh Rashid Ahmed sought disqualification of the Prime Minister and his close family members for their alleged investment in offshore companies. A Supreme Court’s five-member bench, led by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, took up petitions on 20 October, 2016 and concluded its hearing on 23 February, 2017.  (IANS)