ISLAMABAD - Following the hearing of Panamagate case in the Supreme Court, Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan yesterday said that the burden of proof now fell on the Sharif family to prove their innocence.
Talking to reporters outside his residence in Bani Gala, Imran Khan congratulated his party’s legal team to plead the Panama case well before the apex court.
“Now the Supreme Court has observed that the lawyers of Sharif family would have to answer a number of questions in connection with the money trail of their Mayfair properties in London,” he said. He added that the Panama case had taken a new turn because of his supporters’ struggle for the last seven months.
“Today’s hearing of the Supreme Court has made it crystal clear that our lawyers were well prepared for this case,” he said. He said that the day the children of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted the ownership of Mayfair properties, the burden of proof fell on them to prove their innocence. Imran Khan showed apprehensions and gave reference to the Qatari prince’s letter, saying that perhaps they might invite US president-elect Donald Trump to save their skin.
He claimed that PTI had now proved that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had lied before the National Assembly and the Parliament. He reiterated his old rhetoric that Qatari prince’s letter negated the claim of Nawaz Sharif, he made on the floor of the National Assembly, that Mayfair properties were bought after the sale of Gulf Steel Mills. “We have proved through the documents submitted by Sharif family that Gulf Steel Mills was running in losses,” he said and questioned then from where they got money. The observation of the judges also showed that Sharif family was lying about source of money.
Imran Khan said that Hussain Nawaz sent 740 million rupees to his father Nawaz Sharif during the last five years. “This amount was actually money laundered from Pakistan and after dry cleaning it was sent back into the country,” he said. Now a new question has arisen that from where 34 million dollars came in the Al-Toufeeq and Hudabyia Papers Mills cases.
Responding to a question, Imran Khan said that he wanted that this bench would give the final decision of the case instead of forming the commission. He said that their case was not against PM but against the entire government as all government agencies, including FBR and FIA, were supporting PM in this issue.