ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is appearing today before the joint investigation team (JIT) probing his family’s offshore business dealings.
He is the first sitting prime minister to appear before any investigating agency of the country.
In the past, prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had been summoned for presenting their stances, but both of them were called by a judicial forum (Supreme Court) and not by any investigation body.
Even Raja, who was a respondent in a corruption case involving rental power projects, never personally appeared before NAB investigators while in office.
Law enforcement agencies have taken stringent security measures for PM Sharif’s appearance before the JIT. As many as 2,500 security personnel of Rangers, police, Frontier Constabulary (FC), traffic police and special branch will be deployed for providing him security cover.
The JIT had issued summons to Premier Nawaz on June 8, asking him to appear at the Federal Judicial Academy on June 15 and bring along relevant record of Panama Papers case.
The probe team, headed by FIA Additional DG Wajid Zia, will quiz the prime minister over corruption and money laundering allegations against his family.
It was unclear if the statement of the PM would also be video recorded like the other witnesses who have appeared before the team, as the three-member SC Special Bench overseeing the investigation reserved its decision on the matter on Wednesday.
PM’s elder son Hussain Nawaz, has filed a petition seeking the formation of a commission to investigate a photo ‘leak’ from his appearance before the JIT.
Hussain and his younger brother Hassan Nawaz have already been quizzed a number of times by the probe team. A cousin of the PM has also been grilled by the investigators, who have been given only two months time by the apex court to complete the investigation.
Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is also due to appear before the JIT on June 17.
On Wednesday, the JIT also summoned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law former captain Safdar Hussain.
In this regard, the JIT has issued summons directing him to appear before the JIT on June 24 at 11am at the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA).
The sources said that the JIT had also asked Safdar Hussain to bring all the relevant record with him.
Former interior minister Senator Rehman Malik, who voluntarily offered the JIT to record his statement, was called by JIT on June 13 but he could not appear before it for being out of the country.
Malik has worked in the FIA against various posts and also remained the agency’s director-general. He was investigating Nawaz Sharif for corruption during the second government of Benazir Bhutto in the mid-1990s while being in the FIA.
A spokesperson for the senator said Malik would ‘soon’ be appearing before the investigation team. A news agency quoted sources as saying that Malik will appear before the probe team now on June 23, and he has been directed by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to appear with full preparation and complete record.
Beside head of the JIT Wajid Zia, the six-member team includes Amir Aziz from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Bilal Rasool from Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Irfan Naeem Mangi from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Brigadier Nauman Saeed from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Brigadier Kamran Khursheed from the Military Intelligence (MI).