Court sums up entire Panama saga against Sharif in couplet: Khursheed Shah

ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly (NA) Khursheed Shah said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s ruling on ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s review petitions was peculiar in its nature.  

Talking to journalists, the senior PPP leader said the top court summed up the entire accountability saga against former PM Sharif after reciting a couplet.

ادھر ا ُدھر کی نہ بات کر یہ بتا کہ قافلہ کیوں لُٹا
مجھے راہزنوں سے گلہ نہیں تیری رہبری کا سوال ہے

“Sharif should have not fooled the people of Pakistan after submitting a false affidavit,” he said, adding, the apex court’s decision would keep haunting Sharif and his ruling party over a long period of time.

A day earlier, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a detailed verdict rejecting review petitions filed by the Sharif family in the Panama Papers case.

“No ground has been taken in these review petitions nor any argument has been advanced at the bar questioning anything observed or concluded by me in my separate opinion recorded in the main case. The other Honourable members of the Bench have not felt persuaded to review their opinions already recorded. These review petitions are, therefore, dismissed,” Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa wrote.

The bench observed that “the Prime Minister of the country is thought to be the ethos personified of the nation he represents at the national and international level, denying an asset established or defending a trust deed written in 2006 in a font becoming commercial in 2007 is below his dignity and decorum of the office he holds.

Can’t shut eyes

About the Iqama question, the apex court maintained that it “could not have shut eyes when an asset of the petitioner arising out of IQAMA (work permit) having surfaced during the investigation of the case and admitted by him to be his in no uncertain terms, was not found to have been disclosed in his nomination papers because he happened to be the Prime Minister of the country.

Much higher level of integrity is expected of the holder of the highest elected office of the country. But to our dismay and disappointment, the petitioner has not been fair and forthright in answering
any of the queries made during the course of the hearing. He never came forth with the whole truth.

The court observed that Nawaz Sharif tried to “fool the people inside and outside the Parliament” and  even tried to fool the Court without realizing that “you can fool all the people for some of the time, some of the people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.