Plea for accountability of people named in Panama Papers rejected
- By Web Desk -
- Oct 27, 2017
LAHORE: A Lahore High Court bench on Friday dismissed an intra court appeal calling for accountability of all those named in the Panama Papers scandal, ARY News reported.
A division bench headed by Justice Ayesha A Malik dismissed the appeal for being non-maintainable.
Syed Muhammad Ilyas had approached the court, naming Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, and Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan and others as respondents.
He contended that 300 people were named in the Panama Papers scandal, but the Sharif family was singled out for accountability. Carrying out accountability of the Sharifs alone while ignoring the rest was against the principles of the Constitution and justice, he argued.
The appellant requested the bench to order accountability of all those named in the scandal. Besides this, he also assailed the appointment of Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), requesting the court to strike his appointment down.
The Panama Papers leaks had a widespread ramifications on political landscape of the country with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif sent home by the Supreme Court for concealing his undrawn salary from a UAE based company.
Sharif and members of his family are being tried by an accountability court on charges of corruption emanating from the Panama Papers.
A five member bench of the Supreme Court on July 28 had disqualified Nawaz Sharif and directed NAB to file references against him and his family members within six weeks and directed the accountability court to decide the references within six months.