Sharif family submits response in SC, says JIT exceeded mandate

ISLAMABAD: The Sharif family’s counsel, Khawaja Harris, submitted two applications in the Supreme Court on Wednesday detailing objections to the JIT report.

The first application requests the three-member special bench to make public volume 10 of the JIT’s final report. The JIT had requested the court to keep the volume confidential as it contains investigative material that is still ongoing.

The second application mentions several objections of the Sharif family to the JIT itself and the way the investigators conducted their probe.

The Sharif claims that the process of acquiring documents from the UK through ‘mutual legal assistance’ was not held according to the relevant sections of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance.

The JIT report has also been accused of misusing its authority and proceeding beyond their original mandate.

It claims that the JIT’s head, Federal Investigation Agency Additional Director Wajid Zia, employed the services of his cousin’s law firm in the UK, who is allegedly a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The application states that the JIT’s malicious intent is proved in its decision to keep volume 10 of the report confidential. The Sharif family has demanded that the volume be provided to them and made public.

The application also states that the JIT exceeded its authority when it delved into cases such as the Hudabiya Papers Mills case, which was not ordered by the apex court.

Several objections have also been raised by the Sharif family against JIT members. It states that Bilal Rasul, the JIT member from the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, is associated with the PTI whereas Amer Aziz, the JIT member from the State Bank of Pakistan, is affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and was the investigation officer in the Hudabiya Paper Mills case.

Moreover, the Sharif family claims that the JIT member from the Inter Services Intelligence, Brig (retd) Nauman Saeed, is in effect not a legal employee of the intelligence agency as per his contract.

The JIT is also accused of not showing the respondents any of the documents and evidence against it.

The Sharif family has pleaded the court to dismiss the petitions as the JIT report is biased. It also pleaded that based on an ‘incomplete report’, the bench cannot pass any order against the respondents. 

The Panama case JIT, formed in light of the apex court’s April 20 judgment to probe the Sharif family’s money trail, submitted its 60-day investigation report to the court on July 10.

The report highlighted the failure of the Sharif family to provide a money trail for its London apartments and claimed the prime minister and his children own assets beyond their known sources of income.

On Monday, the bench heard arguments from the petitioners who sought disqualification of the prime minister and initiation of cases against them in the relevant courts. 

The Supreme Court will hear arguments from the respondents on Tuesday.