Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to file a legal challenge in the Supreme Court against a damning report by the Joint Investigation Team, which accused him and his family of concealing assets from tax authorities.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide the fate of the Prime Minister next Monday. The JIT report, submitted in the apex court on Monday, has prompted huge uproar in the country with Opposition parties and media calling for the Prime Minister’s resignation. The JIT has recommended the anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau to file a corruption reference.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sharif consulted his legal and political aides and decided to challenge the JIT report. “It has been decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court tomorrow to challenge the JIT findings. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif believes that the report is conjecture and based on assumptions,” a close aide of the ruling PML(N) told The Hindu .
A group of government Ministers are expected to announce the decision later in the evening.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan, who heads the Opposition party Tehrik-i-Insaf, reiterated his demand for resignation of the Prime Minister, saying he has lost moral authority to continue in power. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should step down immediately and face the charges. The JIT report is very clear. It has established that the ruling family has proved to be corrupt. There is no way the Prime Minister can hold on to his post,” he told reporters in Islamabad.
Media houses also called for the Prime Minister to step down. Dawn in its editorial wrote that from snippets of the JIT report that have been shared with the media, it does appear that the JIT has made a number of damaging observations about the legitimacy of the wealth of Prime Minister Sharif and his children. “The PML-N must be prepared to do the right thing for the sake of democracy. Prime Minister Sharif’s supporters may rightly argue that the PML-N’s majority in parliament is because of Mr. Sharif, but the constitutional position is clear: the PML-N government can exist without Mr. Sharif,” the paper said.
