Make or break verdict for Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan’s Supreme Court will announce its verdict on Thursday in the Panama leaks scandal against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family which the rivals hope will force the Prime Minister to quit.

A five-member bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, and comprising justices Ejaz Afzal Khan, Gulzar Ahmed, Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Ijazul Ahsan, had reserved the judgment on February 23 after the defence and prosecution completed their arguments. Justice Khosa, on the conclusion, said this judgment would be remembered after 20 years. Anyway, it would be historical judgment and set the future course.

Experts said the Panama judgment was important in the context of the general elections being held next year. All the parties, including the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), hope to use the verdict in their election campaigns in the 2018 polls. PTI and many believe the decision will be against Nawaz Sharif and his family and the PM would be disqualified and sent home.

The decision is only about disqualification of the Prime Minister on the basis of his speeches to the nation and on the floor of the National Assembly. The court would also have to see whether the PM could be disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution as he omitted some facts in his speeches. So far there is no direct evidence to implicate Nawaz Sharif directly in the cases.

Mr Sharif  and his children had accepted that the London flats are theirs, but they had come into their custody after 2006. The PTI in this regard did not produce any document that these flats were into the custody of Nawaz Sharif or his sons prior to 2006.

The PTI has also failed to produce direct evidence that the flats were purchased through ill-gotten money, while the PML-N in defence relied upon the Qatari letter. The court could order further investigation for authenticity of the letter and can’t outrightly reject it, the experts believe.

There is another issue of Maryam Safdar’s ownership of Mayfair flats. The trust deed also needs further probe. The dependency issue of Maryam Safdar on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also requires some investigation.