A Supreme Court judge on Monday observed that while Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen were providing evidence in response to the court’s questions, the respondents in the Panama Papers case had not been as forthcoming, forcing the court to form a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to ascertain the facts.
The observation came during the hearing of the petition filed by local Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi, seeking the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen.
The counsel for Mr Abbasi on Monday invited the attention of the court to what he termed “a perception” that this case was not being heard like the Panama Papers case was.
“A perception is being created that the court is providing opportunities to the other side to come up with more documents, even though the case has been closed now,” senior counsel Mohammad Akram Sheikh regretted.
But Justice Umar Ata Bandial — a member of the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar — compared the Hanif Abbasi case with the Panama Papers case, saying that these cases were inquisitorial in nature. The court had asked many questions from the respondents and in response, they had provided several documents.
