DISQUALIFICATION OF

PM NAWAZ SHARIF

The Prime Minister of Pakistan is the head of Government of Pakistan.

Pakistan has been around for seventy years. During this period the country
has gone through a lot of changes , but one thing has remain unchanged.
The prime minister will not complete his period of five years in office. This
has been the case right from Pakistan's first prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan
to Nawaz Sharif. Some were assasinated, others dismissed by court or in
some cases, the military just decided they had enough.

PANAMA PAPERS LEAKS

On April 3,2016 a giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal
records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrong doing,
hidden by secretive offshore companies. It included eight offshore
companies with links to the family of Nawaz Sharif. According to ICIJ
Nawaz's children Maryam, Hassan and Hussain are the owners of these
offshore companies including Nielson and Nescol etc.

After these leaks many politicians criticize Nawaz Sharif and said him
corrupt. Mainly Chairman of PTI Imran Khan made many protests against
PM and criticize him badly. Facing growing criticism, Sharif announced the
formation of a judicial commission under a retired judge of Supreme Court
of Pakistan.However no commission was formed.

On May 16,2016 PM Nawaz Sharif adressed to the National Assembley of

Pakistan. He said that he was not afraid of accountability. He said," Today

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people living in big houses and traveling in helicopters are accusing me
corrupt. Can they explain before the nation as to how they earned all this
money and how much they paid tax?"

After speech of Sharif, PTI chairman Imran Khan filed a petition to the
Supreme Court of Pakistan for the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif.After this, other political leaders including Sheikh Rasheed and
Jamat-e-Islami's Siraj-ul-Haq also filed petition against Nawaz Sharif and his
family, son-in-law Muhammad Safdar and Financial Minister Ishaq Dar.On
September 30,2016 PTI workers stagged a sit-in outside Sharif's private
reidence at Raiwind, Lahore. Khan subsequently called on supporters to
lock-down Islamabad untill PM resigned.

PANAMA PAPERS CASE IN SUPREME COURT

The Court's initial five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Jamali
started the hearings of case from November 1,2016 on day-to-day basis.
Sharif's lawer informed the bench that Hassan and Hussain are running a
business lawfully for decades, and Maryam Nawaz was not dependent on
her father, nor the benficial owner of Nielson and Nescol, but a trustee.
However Justice Khosa requested the council to satisfy the bench that the
money has earned and transferred lawfully.

On November 14,2016 Sharif's lawyer produced a letter from Qatari Prince

Hamad bin Jassim. In letter Hamad said that my father Jassim and Nawaz's
father Sharif had long standing business relations and Jassim and Sharif
invested money in each others business. Court asked Sharif's lawyer why
Qatari letter is not included in PM's speech in Parliament. He replied those
were mere political statements. On January 26,2017 a second Qatari letter
was produced clarifying that investment was made by the way of provision
of cash of Gulf Steel Mills.

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After the retirement of Justice Jamali , a new bench headed by Justice Asif
Saeed Khosa was formed, the bench included Justice Azmat Saeed, Justice
Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Ejaz Afzal and Justice Gulzar Ahmed.PTI's lawyer
argued that Sharif's family failed to present any record on money trail. He
maintained that Maryam Nawaz paid no tax and she remained dependent
on her father. He added that Hussain Nawaz gifted Rs.810 million to his
father. He also highlighted the NAB's failure in Hudaibiya Paper Mills case in
2000. The hearings continues till February 23,2017. The Court reserved its
judgement on the same date.

1st VERDICT
The result of the case was announced at 2:00pm on April 20,2017. The
Supreme Court , in a 3-2 decision, detailed that there is insufficient
evidence to order Nawaz Sharif's removal from office, but ordered further
investigation. The Court ordered the formation of Joint Investigation Team
(JIT) under three member special bench which was later known as JIT
implementation bench. The two judges on the bench Justice Asif Saeed
Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed were of the opinion that PM Nawaz Sharif
had not been honest to the nation and should be disqualified from office.

JOINT INVESTIGATION TEAM (JIT)

As per verdict of Supeme Court a three-member implementation bench
was made to supervise the JIT. This three member bench was headed by
Justice Ejaz Afzal and would include Justice Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz-ul-
Ahsan.The JIT was made by Supreme Court implementation bench and it
comprises 6 members headed by Wajid Zia from FIA. Other members are
Ameer Aziz from SBP, Bilal Rasool from SECP, Irfan Naeem Mangi from NAB,
Brigadier(R) Nauman Saeed from ISI and Brigadier Kamran Khurshid from

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MI. The JIT functional headquarter was in Federal Judicial Academy,
Islamabad, and JIT was given a working budget of Rs.20 million.

The JIT was asked to investigate the money trail and offshore assets of
Nawaz's family. In this regard JIT was given ten points to investigate. The
main points are how did Gulf Steel came into being? How Hussain and
Hassan Nawaz in early nineties are able to purchase London flats? Who is
the beneficial owner of Nielson and Nescol Ltd? After the orders of
Supreme Court JIT started investigation.

Almost all the members of Sharif's family summoned before JIT for the
investigation of money trail.The JIT was given 2 months for investigation.
During this JIT submited a number of proceeding reports to the Supreme
Court of Pakistan.The Supreme Court ordered JIT to submit its final report
on July 10,2017.

JIT REPORT
Despite controversies, On July 10,2017 JIT submitted a 275-page report in
Supreme Court. The report requested NAB to file references against Nawaz,
his daughter Maryam and his sons. JIT noted that Nawaz's family was not
able to justify their assets and income. JIT proved that Maryam Nawaz has
been the beneficial owner of Nielson and Nescol. The report further stated
that Maryam submited false documents in Supreme Court. The basis of this
fact was the use of Calibri font in documents showed to be from 2006, but
the font was released publicly in 2007. The main finding of JIT is the
discovery of an offshore company FZE Capital in Dubai, managed by Nawaz
Sharif. Nawaz family rejected the JIT report and said report is fully made
against them.

After the submission of JIT report to Court, the Supreme Court began
hearing arguments from petitioners and respondents. Respondents lawyers

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fully opposed the JIT report but petetioners accepted the report. On July
21,2017, the court concluded the hearings and reserved its judgement.

FINAL VERDICT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN

On July 28,2017 the larger 5-member bench headed by Jusitce Asif Saeed
Khosa of the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced its decision and
disqualified the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as he had been
dishonest in not disclosing his employment in the Capital FZE company in
his nomination papers. So according to article 62-1-F of the Constitution of
Pakistan he has not been honest and disqualified from holding office and as
Member of National Assembly.The court also ordered NAB to file
references against Sharif, his family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against
corruption charges.

BY: UMAIR ASHRAF SIVIA